Sakura Bloom
by Tsukimomo
Summary: Sonic & Shadow have been trying hard to keep their relationship a secret for about 2 months now. And things become a little difficult when they go on holiday with their friends to a beach resort. Will they be able to keep their relationship a secret?
1. Phase I

Phase I: Let's Go On Vacation!

Sonic smirked at his 'masterpiece', a giant pile pancakes stacked on top of each other with what looked a popsicle stick on top. The blue hedgehog picked up his pancakes by the stick before taking a bite out of them, syrup dribbling down his chin.

He looked up at the clock. **9:59 Am**. A grin suddenly spread across his face as an idea came into his head. But his thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. His grin was replaced with a frown as he walked over to the phone.

"Hello?" he greeted whoever was on the other end of the phone. The grin returned to his face when he heard the voice on the other end. "Hello Lady Vanilla. Is everything okay? You don't usually call first thing in the morning."

"_I know and I'm sorry. But I wanted to ask if you would like to go with us to a beach resort. I heard that there are some cherry blossom trees that grow in the area. When I told Cream about it she insisted that I call all of her friends and ask them to come along."_

"Sure!" replied the hedgehog. "Sounds like fun. You can tell Cream that I'll defiantly be there."

"_I will, Sonic. The resort is called the Sakura Beach Resort. From where you are it should be easy to get to by sea."_

Sonic tensed at the word 'sea'.

"_If you go to the harbor and let them know that the fee will be paid when you get there I'll pay for you."_

"You don't have to do that."

"_Oh no, I insist upon it. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know where Shadow is would you? Cream wanted to invite him along too be we don't know how to contact him."_

"Don't you worry. I'll find Shadow and drag him along if I have to."

"_Thank you Sonic. Oh, and by the way, if you want to get to the resort on time you're probably going to have to set off tomorrow."_

"Right then. I've gotta go. I'll see you at the resort, Lady Vanilla."

As Sonic put the phone down a look of worry came across his face. It just _had_ to be sea didn't it? As long as he stayed away from the sides of the boat he'd be alright wouldn't he? He sighed, closing his eyes, suddenly remembering that he promised to bring Shadow along too. He reopened his eyes and headed over to the bedroom.

As he entered the room, he saw a lump underneath the bed sheets. He smirked and slowly began creeping over, but stopped when he stepped on something. He looked down to see that he had stepped on a tube, the clear substance inside had splattered all over the floor.

It was then that sonic remembered the crazy night that had happened the night before. He smiled dreamily as the memories came back to him before proceeding over to the bed. With a sly grin, he jumped on top of the lump yelling at the top of his lungs: "TIME TO GET UP!!"

The lump underneath the bed groaned before a black and red arm came out from under the covers, attempting to push the blue hedgehog off but to no avail. Sonic laughed, getting off of the bed. A sigh of relief was heard from under the covers. Sonic smirked, moving down to the end of the bed and grabbing the covers. His smirk widened as he pulled the covers off of the bed, revealing a very annoyed Shadow.

"There's my pooch," Sonic said, grinning and jumping on the bed near Shadow.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" Shadow asked, the annoyance clear in his voice as he spoke.

"That's the eighth time this week," replied Sonic, looking rather proud of himself.

Shadow shook his head, smirking before wrapping his arms around Sonic and pulling him closer. "What am I gonna do with you, you idiot."

"Love me?" replied Sonic, hopefully.

Shadow had to let out a laugh, ruffling Sonic's quills. "I always will," he said softly before practically throwing Sonic off of him and exciting the room.

"You call _that_ love?"

Shadow only smirked as he entered the kitchen, picking up the pancakes Sonic had been eating and taking a bite out of them. His smirk faded as certain thoughts entered his mind. He and Sonic had been boyfriends for about two months, maybe just over. The thing was though; Sonic didn't want anyone else to know. He's seen it himself. People who have done absolutely nothing wrong in their lives were shunned just because they didn't like those of the opposite sex.

"Are you listening to me Shadow?"

Said hedgehog looked at Sonic, breaking out of his thoughts. Sonic was stood by the refrigerator, staring over his shoulder at Shadow. "Wha?" was the black hedgehog's reply.

Sonic sighed, grabbing what looked like eight month old cheese before taking a bite out of it, earning a look of disgust from Shadow.

"I said: Lady Vanilla has invited us to go on vacation with everyone," Sonic repeated since Shadow didn't hear him the first time.

"And you're telling me why?" was Shadow's reply.

"Because Cream wanted both me _and_ you to come."

"And what did you say?"

"That I'd go and if you said no I'd drag you along anyway."

Shadow heaved a sigh, closing his eyes before finishing off the giant stack of pancakes. He then felt a slight breeze as Sonic rushed out of the room. Retching could then be heard in the bathroom. "It's your own fault for eating the cheese!" Shadow called out to him, hoping that his blue mate could hear him.

- - -

Later that day, Sonic stood in the bedroom, two suitcases on the bed. The dark blue one belonged to Sonic while the pitch black one belonged to Shadow. There were some random clothes tucked neatly away in both suitcases. There were also towels, toothbrushes, toothpastes, deodorant sprays, mp3 players, torches, sunglasses, sunscreen, shampoo, combs, and a tube of lubricant in Shadow's suitcase.

Sonic smiled before closing both suitcases. And jogging out of the bedroom and into the living room where Shadow lay on the couch watching something random on the television.

"Every thing's packed for tomorrow," the blue hedgehog announced.

"Hey," Shadow said, not taking his eyes off of the television. "Are you sure you're gonna be alright tomorrow? I mean...you're terrified of water. Not only will we need to cross the ocean to get to the resort, but the resort itself will be surrounded by water. Are you sure you can handle it?"

Sonic looked at Shadow's crimson eyes before replying: "As long as I've got someone with me, I should be fine."

Shadow's gaze shifted from the television to Sonic before he grinned, opening his arms for the blue hedgehog. Sonic, in return smiled and happily jumped into Shadow's arms.

- - -

Sonic made a gulping sound as he looked up at the ship that was floating on the water. It was just as he had expected. A fairly large boat that was black on the bottom with two stripes above it, one red and one blue. The blue hedgehog could feel some of his fur sticking on end but soon relaxed when he felt and hand entwine with his own. He looked to his left to see Shadow with a reassuring smile on his face. Sonic smiled back before the two got onto the boat and told the captain where they wanted to go.

The blue hedgehog sat on the bed he would have to use that night since the trip to the resort took more than a day to get there. He heard the door open and shut softly. He then felt some extra weight on the bed. He didn't need to look up to see who it was.

Shadow had decided to check on Sonic since the blue hedgehog had freaked out a couple of times that day, but soon calmed down afterwards. He would have to apologize to the captain for what Sonic had done to the toilet in one of the spare rooms. And trust me, you do _not_ want to know what happened.

"You know, Sonic," Shadow began, placing his hand on top of Sonic's. "We're gonna be around the others for quite a while. That means we can't be together as much. Not mention that when we are together we're gonna have to be careful of how we act."

"I know," replied the blue hedgehog, his eyes drooping. "But do we really have to sleep in different rooms tonight? What if I freak out again?"

Shadow placed his hand under Sonic's chin, forcing the blue hedgehog to look at him, his eyes heavy lidded. "The moment you freak out," he said in a soft, caring voice, "I'll be right here besides you."

Sonic sighed before wrapping his arms around Shadow's neck and resting his head on the black hedgehog's chest. "I know, Shadow...I know..."

- - -

_He stood there, not quite knowing where he was. He knew he was in a field, but where was the field? A small breeze passed him, ruffling his soft blue quills. His emerald eyes looked straight forward before he turned his head to try and figure out where he was. _

"_Hello?" he called out. No answer. He sighed and began walking forwards. The ground suddenly rumbled from behind the blue hedgehog, making him turn around quickly to see what that was. _

"_A rattle?" he questioned, looking a giant red and blue rattle that lay on the ground. Another rumble. When he turned around again he saw a giant baby bottle. An ear piecing laugh came from where the rattle was, making the blue hedgehog turn yet again. He gasped upon what he saw._

_A large baby hedgehog sat on the ground, shaking the rattle in its hand. It gurgled, standing on two feet before reaching down to grab Sonic. Sonic's first reaction was to try and run from the overgrown baby, but the hedgehog began following him, easily catching up. Sonic let out a scream as he just missed being flattened by the baby's rattle. _

_The baby, in turn, let out another screech of laughter and continued smacking the rattle on the ground, earning more screams from the blue speedster. Sonic's luck ran out as he tripped, falling to the ground, the baby's rattle falling down on him in slow motion._

- - -

"AHHH!!" Sonic screamed, his eyes snapping open. Sweat was pouring down his face and his breathing was heavy. he quickly looked around, his eyes desperatly attempting to adjust to the darkness.

"Shh, it's okay," a soft voice soothed him.

Sonic soon realized that he was in Shadow's arms. The black hedgehog was gently rocking him back and forth in attempt to calm him down. His chin rested upon the top of Sonic's head. Shadow's hand stroked Sonic's blue quills in a gentle manor only he knew how to do.

"Shadow," the blue speedster whispered, placing his hand on Shadow's chest. "I had the strangest of dream."

"Oh yeah? What about?" asked Shadow, still rocking the blue hedgehog gently back and forth.

"There was a giant baby with a rattle. It was chasing me and trying to squish me with its rattle."

Shadow had an amused look on his face as he continued stroking Sonic's quills. "What did you eat today?"

"Pizza with cherries, a chilidog with whipped cream on top, and that fish you caught."

"_You_ ate that!?"

Sonic slumped down slightly, as if trying to hide from the bad tempered hedgehog. "The fridge was empty," he replied innocently.

The Ultimate Life Form sighed, letting go of Sonic and tucking him back into bed. "You know, you should really stop mixing spicy and sweet foods together, it'll make you sick."

"I know. I just can't seem to help myself lately." Sonic let out a yawn. His black mate kissed him goodnight on the forehead before leaving to his own bed. "Night, Shadow," he heard him say just after he closed the door.

"Goodnight, Sonic."

- - -

**Wow! My first Sonadow fic. And if you wanna know why I put that dream bit in it was because I had that exact seem dream once, except it was a human baby and it DROOLED ON ME!!!**

**Sonic: I bet that was fun. But why'd **_**I**_** dream of it?**

**So Shadow could come and comfort you!**

**Sonic: Can't argue with that.**

**Oh yeah, I didn't mention this at the beginning but Sonic the hedgehog and all related characters do NOT belong to me! Understand? **

**Sonic: And if you guys wanna find out what happens next then please review.**

**I'LL GIVE YOU COOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	2. Phase II

**Hi peeps! Thankie's to everyone who's review my fic so far! It's because of you that I decided to submit the second chappie! I've acually just finished writing the third and am going through it for any spelling mistakes. **

**Oh yeah, ME NO OWN SONIC!!!!**

**Let the story continue!!!!!**

- - -

Phase II: Everyone's Here, Time For Fun!

Shadow checked to make sure he hadn't forgotten to put anything back in his suitcase. He quickly ran into his bathroom, grabbing his toothbrush and placing it neatly in the corner. A tube suddenly caught his attention.

"Lubricant," he said to himself upon recognizing it. He picked it up and headed towards Sonic's room. He knocked lightly before entering. "Sonic, did you pack this in my suitcase?" His only reply was the sound of retching from the en suit bathroom. Frowning, the black hedgehog made his way over to see Sonic leaning over the toilet puking his guts out.

Shadow leaned down next to him, gently rubbing his back. When the retching finally stopped, Sonic stayed leaning over the toilet for a while, his arms covering his face. It was when Shadow flushed the toilet that he finally looked up, his eyes bloodshot.

"I told you you'd get sick," was the red streaked hedgehog's reply.

Sonic leaned over the toilet again, groaning. "I...Hate...Water..."

Shadow couldn't help but let out a small laugh, picking Sonic up bridal style and carrying him over to the bed. "The captain said we'd be arriving soon. Would you like me to put your stuff away?"

Sonic only nodded, closing his eyes. So Shadow got to work on putting away anything that belonged to Sonic. Once that was done, he laid down next to his lover, placing a hand on the blue hedgehog's forehead.

"You don't have a fever," he announced. "Would you like anything for breakfast?"

Sonic opened his eyes and though for a moment. "Eggs?" he asked, looking up a Shadow who nodded and headed to where the boat's kitchen was. Despite just throwing up just about everything he had eaten the day before, Sonic ate the eggs Shadow had made him pretty quickly. Shadow was an excellent cook, even when it came to cooking things that just about anyone could do.

"Hey Shadow, do you think you can cook for everyone at the resort?" Sonic asked once he's finished eating his breakfast.

Shadow frowned at him. "Sorry Sonic, but my cooking is reserved either you or special occasions. And that doesn't include vacations," he said, grabbing Sonic's suitcase and pulling it out of the room, closely followed by the blue speedster himself.

"But that means you'd still cook for me on the holiday, right?"

"We're here," Shadow replied, not really paying attention to Sonic's question. "Remember what I said last night about us being together. If you don't want them to find out then we should try to just act as friends."

"No cuddles?"

"Only when we're alone." And with that he pulled Sonic into a tight embrace.

"Love you, Shadow."

"And I love you too."

- - -

"SONIC!!" several voices cried in unison. A pink hedgehog jumped up and attached herself to said blue speedster. Tails, Cream, Cheese, Knuckles, Rouge, and the Chaotix detectives came running over to him.

"Oh, hey guys," Sonic said, struggling to get Amy off of him. "Amy, could you please...let go I'm having trouble...breathing."

"Oh, sorry," the pink hedgehog said before letting go. She then noticed a black hedgehog behind her darling. "Shadow! I didn't think you'd come along!"

"Yeah, Shadow. You're not usually the type who goes on vacation with anyone," said Rouge, smirking.

"Sonic dragged me," replied Shadow, frowning and crossing his arms. Rouge raised an eyebrow at him, the smirk still visible on her face. "What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Ah, there you two are," a soft voice said. Creams mother was walking over to the two hedgehogs. "I was beginning to get a bit worried. You were the last to show up."

"But they're here now, mommy," said Cream with a reassuring smile.

"So let the relaxation begin!" Sonic cried, punching a fist up in the air.

- - -

Sonic flopped down on the double bed. Lucky for them, or they acted as though it was unfortunate, there was only one room left, so Sonic and Shadow had to share it. He looked to the side to see Shadow opening his suitcase.

"By the way," Shadow said, making Sonic's ears twitch at his voice. "When I came in your room this morning I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh. Sorry. It's my fault for throwing up," replied Sonic, apologetically.

Shadow shook his head. "No, you don't need to be sorry. But seriously, Sonic, did you put this in my suitcase?"

Sonic looked at the tube of lubricant Shadow was holding up before smirking devilishly. "I thought we might need to use it when we're alone."

Shadow chuckled, shaking his head before placing it on top of the drawers. He then took out his clothes placing them in one of the drawers. He then turned to Sonic and pointed at the drawer. "My drawer," he said. Then he pointed at the one below it. "Your drawer."

Sonic jumped off of the bed and opened his own suitcase, looking through it for something. He then smiled pulling out a torch and a pair of sunglasses. Shadow watched, curious as to what the blue hedgehog was doing. Sonic put on the sunglasses before shining the torch in his eyes.

"What are you-" Shadow was interrupted when the door banged open, putting a small dent in the wall. He quickly grabbed the lubricant tube and hid it.

"Sonic!" Amy's voice sang.

Sonic stood up, taking off his sunglasses and turning the torch off. "Amy, what're you doing? Shouldn't you be unpacking?"

Amy smiled. "Well, I actually came here with Cream and Lady Vanilla and since we were the first ones here we unpacked straight away. I came to see if you wanted to walk with me on the beach."

Shadow coughed, causing both hedgehogs to look at him, one understanding something while the other looked confused.

"Do you have a cough or something, Shadow? Cause if you do then you can go home if you want," said Amy.

The thought of Amy having Sonic all to herself for however long they were gonna be there didn't appeal to Shadow at all. "No, I'm fine," he replied, sounding surprisingly calm.

Sonic turned to Amy saying: "Shadow and I need to unpack. Why don't you go see the others?"

The pink hedgehog stared at Sonic for a moment before replying: "Okay," and walking off, shutting the door behind her.

Sonic's eyes lay on Shadow in an instance. A smirk crept up on his face. "Shadow," he said slowly, the smirk getting slightly wider. "Are you...jealous?"

Shadow said nothing. He only continued to unpack his things.

The blue hedgehog had to laugh. "Oh, Shadow. I didn't think that the great Ultimate Life Form would get jealous over something like this."

"But she's pretty," Shadow said quietly. Sonic's smirk vanished as he waited for more. "She more than pretty. She's beautiful. How can _I _compare to that? I'm just scared that one day...one day you'll leave me for her."

Sonic walked up to Shadow, hugging him from behind. "Shadie...How could you think that? Sure, she's pretty, but I fell for you didn't I? I love you, and no one or thing is gonna stop me from doing that."

"Sonic...don't call me 'Shadie'."

Sonic pouted before he could hear a very familiar voice from down the hall, causing him to pull away from Shadow.

"Where is Sonic the Hedgehog!?"

"Please don't tell me she invited _him_ too!" the blue speedster begged, putting a hand over his face.

"Who's 'him'?" asked Shadow, a little confused. The door banged open yet again, putting yet another dent in the wall, this time revealing a deep green colored hawk. Shadow looked at where the door had slammed the wall. "Jesus Christ! What is it with people slamming the door open!? They're gonna put a hole in it and then we'd have to pay in order to get it fixed!"

"Um..." was the hawk's answer.

Sonic took the hand away from his face and looked at the intruder. "Maybe later, Jet," he said as said hawk nodded before leaving.

Shadow frowned at Sonic.

"What?"

"And just who was he?" Shadow inquired, crossing his arms.

"He's just a rival. Nothing to get you quills in a knot with."

"We were rivals."

Sonic looked at his feet for a moment. "Please Shadow," he said, not looking up.

Shadow sighed before unpacking Sonic's things for him. He then paused. "Sonic," he said. "What the _heck _are _these_!?" He pulled out a pair of boxers that were covered with pictures of Shadow's face.

Sonic screamed, snatching them away from Shadow and hiding them behind his back, his entire face red. "N-Nothing! They're absolutely nothing at all! Really!"

Shadow smirked.

"I said they're nothing!"

Shadow still smirked.

"LISTEN TO ME! I SAID THEY'RE NOTHING!!!!!"

Shadow laughed as the embarrassed Sonic stood with his hands behind his back, his face still red. He stood up and walked over to Sonic. His face only and inch away from Sonic's, a smirk still on his face. "I'll deal with you later," he said in a husky voice before leaving the room.

Sonic sighed and continued unpacking his things, hiding the boxers at the back of his drawer, hoping that none of his friends would raid his drawer. "How did that even get in there?" he asked himself, closing the door.

"How'd what get in there?" asked a soft, sweet voice.

Sonic turned to see the six year old rabbit smiling sweetly at him. "Oh, nothing Cream," he replied, smiling at the youngster. "By the way Cream, you didn't happen to invite the Babylon Rogues did you?"

Cream nodded, still smiling. "When I got lost they helped me get home. So I asked if they wanted to come along."

Sonic sighed. "Oh well. When's dinner ready anyway? I'm starving."

"There's a boof-ay downstairs."

"That's _buffet_, Cream."

The little rabbit smiled sweetly before running out of the room. When she did she accidentally bumped into Tails. "Oops, sorry Tails."

"Oh, that's okay, Cream," replied Tails, a faint blush on his face.

Sonic leaned against the doorframe, raising an eyebrow at the fox as Cream skipped away. Tails looked at him, seeing him smirk. It was then he realized why the hedgehog was smirking.

"Oh get real, Sonic!" he snapped before storming off.

"Young love. Never ceases to amaze me," said a feminine voice.

"Oh, hey Rouge," Sonic greeted, but then was in shock. "How long have you been standing there!?"

"Hm? I think it was when Shadow found those boxer shorts of yours."

Sonic's face once again turned red, earning a laugh from the bat.

"If you fancy him then why don't you tell him?"

"There's nothing to tell," Sonic said before walking away, closing the door.

- - -

"For the last time, Jet, no! I will not race with you!" a very annoyed Sonic snapped. For the past, what, hour? Anyway, for the past hour Jet had been following Sonic all around the resort asking him to race.

"Hah! You're just a big chicken aren't ya?" Jet laughed, and then proceeded to do a chicken impression.

"You're the one doing the impression," Sonic shot back.

Jet scowled at him, his feathers sticking up. "Fine! If you don't wanna race today then we'll do it tomorrow, and prove who the chicken is!"

Sonic only made a noise that sounded like 'yeah whatever' before walking down the corridor. Ever since he had arrived all he's gotten was trouble. It took hours to convince Amy that he wanted to be alone, and even more hours to get Jet to stop challenging him to a race.

He sighed heading out to the beach. Night had fallen, and the stars shone brightly. Normally, the sound of waves made Sonic anxious. But tonight he felt a bit calm. His ears suddenly perked at the sound of footsteps approaching. He turned to see Tails.

"Hey there, little bro. What's up?" he greeted.

"I just came to see what you were doing," Tails announced. "It's not often you go down to the beach...where there's water."

"Yeah, but the night so cool and I just couldn't resist."

There was a brief silence between the two. A small breeze passed by, ruffling their fur.

"Listen, Sonic, about earlier today when I bumped into Cream-"

"Don't sweat it, kid. People fall in love all the time."

"I'm _not_ in love with her! I just think she's a nice girl is all."

"Suit yourself."

Tails sighed, his twin tails swaying behind him. "But...but say I were in love with her. How would I know?"

A grin tugged at Sonic's lips. "You just know. Although you may be oblivious to it at first, it eventually starts to grow on you. And it keeps on growing until eventually, you end up a complete wreck every time you're with that person. And you start saying things that you wouldn't expect yourself to say. And then comes the day when you accidentally say something in front of that person, and then they know you love them."

"And what happens after that?" the fox asked, interested in his brother's words. He knew Sonic had moments like this not very often, and so he listened before it was too late.

The blue hedgehog looked up at the stars, a smile spread across his face. "And then...you hope for the best. If that person loves you back, then who knows? You can be a happy couple. But if they don't...well let's not talk about that right now."

Tails smiled at Sonic, putting his hands behind his back. "Say Sonic."

"Yeah?"

"How did you know about that?"

"About what?"

"Everything you just said then. Are _you_ in love with someone. Did you tell them yet? Who is it?"

The blue speedster chuckled, raffling his little brother's bangs. "First off, kid, I'm not in love with anyone. And second, it's just one of those things your elders tell you."

"Okay, I believe ya," replied Tails, as the two began heading back inside. Sonic headed towards the elevator. "Hey, where're you going?"

"I'm a bit tired. Amy's been trying to get me to go on a date with her all day while Jet's done nothing but ask me to race him. So I'm hitting the hay. Tell everyone I said night."

The little fox nodded before heading into the dining room where everyone else was. He headed over to Knuckles who was trying, hence the word: 'trying', to tell Vector a joke.

"...and the guy says: 'That's not a wrinkly elephant! That's my grandma!'" the echidna finished.

Vector was silent for a moment before he began roaring with laughter. "That's the best joke I've heard since the one Espio told me about the ninjas!" he laughed.

"That wasn't a joke. That was a life threatening incident involving my parents," Espio said blankly.

"Nice joke, Knuckles," the fox commented, although he didn't hear the first part.

The red echidna turned to look at him. "Oh, thanks Tails! Say, where's Sonic? I wanna tell him that someone actually laughed at that joke," he said, looking around.

"Oh, he said he went to bed."

At those words, a certain black and red hedgehog's ears perked up, trying to hear what was being said better.

"He's pretty worn out. He looked it too."

Shadow sighed and began heading out of them room when Rouge's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"And just where are you going?" she asked.

Shadow turned to her, an annoyed look on his face. "I left something upstairs," he stated before turning and leaving. The white bat smirked. If what she was thinking was true, then this vacation would be more fun than she thought.

- - -

Sonic cuddled up to his pillow, his eyes too heavy with sleep to keep open. What an exhausting day it had been. And he's only just arrived. He hoped that tomorrow wouldn't be as bad as that day had been.

He shifted slightly, pulling the covers closer. He thought he heard a soft 'click' from across the room, but chose to ignore it. Instead, he just let out a deep sigh before relaxing his body.

Something then touched his cheek. A hand. Sonic shifted in bed, sitting up and turning the lamp on. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked to see Shadow sat on the edge of the bed, a look of concern on his face.

"Shadow? What's up?" asked Sonic, sleepily.

"Tails said you looked tired so I came to check on you," replied the black hedgehog as he began stroking Sonic's cheek gently.

"I'm fine. Just had a rough day is all."

Shadow pulled Sonic's body close to his, stroking his quills like he had done the night before. "Would you like me to stay with you? I don't mind. I'm pretty tired myself."

Sonic simply nodded, receiving a kiss on the forehead before being gently laid on the bed.

"I'll be back in a minute," Shadow said before going into the bathroom. He came out a few minutes afterward before heading over to the door, locking it to ensure no one would come in. He then proceeded to the bed, getting in next to Sonic and holding him close. "Goodnight, my love."

Sonic let out a stifled yawn before replying: "G'night...Shadow," and falling asleep in the black hedgehog's arms.

- - -

**Whoot! Another chapter finished! O.O Where did Sonic get those boxers?**

**Shadow: I HATE you!**

**Eh? Why? I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL!!!!!!!!!**

**Shadow: I read the script for the next chapter.**

**GASP! O.O! How dare you! What will Sonic think of this?**

**Sonic: Hello.**

**I mean, he means more to you than Maria.**

**Sonic: Goodbye. -.-'**

**Shadow: My relationships with both Sonic and Maria are none of your business!**

**You should've thought about that before allowing people to write about them on this site.**

**Shadow: I HATE HUMANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	3. Phase III

**Hi dudes and dudettes! I'm trying to update whenever I can and I always make sure tostay at least 1 chapter ahead. Anyway, this is gonna be a pretty crazy chapter if you listened to what Shadow was saying last time. **

**It is at this time a would like give my gratitude to all those soldiers out in iraq. I have a friend who found a dead family the other day and the youngest daughter was clutching a stuffed animal even though she was dead.**

**I would also like to say: I DON'T OWN SONIC!!!**

- - -

Phase III: Introducing Manic— I Mean Manie!

The morning seemed quiet. A breeze whipped by, gently brushing her green locks ever so slightly. Her red painted lips turned into a smile. "This is it," she said. "GOOD MORNING MY LITTLE BROTHER!"

- - -

Shadow awoke that morning to the sound of someone shouting some random crap. The whole point on going on vacation was to relax, not to be annoyed by some drunken idiot screaming things at the top of their lungs. Shadow sighed, trying to get back to sleep, but a small whimper close to him caused him to open his eyes.

"What's wrong, Sonic?" Shadow said ever so softly in his lover's ear.

"My stomach really hurts. It's been like this all night," replied Sonic, closing his eyes. Sonic's cellphone, which was on the bedside table, began ringing, playing what sounded like Mihimaru GT's 'Love Sick'. Shadow cocked an eyebrow as the blue hedgehog grinned sheepishly before answering.

"Hello?" There was a long pause, as if Sonic was trying to register something on the other end. His eyes suddenly widened, making Shadow curious. "You're WHERE!?!?!?!?"

- - -

"MY DARLING LITTLE BROTHER! IT'S BEEN SO LONG!" a deep female voice cried, as a green hedgehog jumped on top of Sonic, giving him a life threatening hug that was probably twice as worse as Amy's.

"Sonic!" Amy stood a little behind Sonic. The two of them, plus the green hedgehog were all stood in the entrance of the hotel. "Sonic, who is that?"

The green hedgehog took one look at Amy and squealed in delight, running over to the girl and taking her hands in its own.

"You must be Amy! Amy Rose! Am I correct? Am I? Am I? Am I?" the green hedgehog squealed, its eyes sparkling.

"Um, yeah," replied Amy, unsure of what was going on.

Another squeal came from the hedgehog. "IT'S SO NICE TO FINALLY MEET YOU! SONIC'S ALWAYS TELLING ME ABOUT YOU!"

"Wha? No I don't!" yelled Sonic, looking a bit ticked off.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, who are you?" Amy said, still confused.

The green hedgehog's smile faded. "Oh I'm so so so so sorry. I guess I got carried away again. I am the great one and only Manie!" The green hedgehog introduced herself. She had quills like Sonics, but there were a few tuffs of fur that were neatly combed down the side of her face on curled slightly at the end. She wore a tight, red vest, showing off the size of her large breasts of doom (even larger than Rouges). She also had a cream colored jacket, a tight violet skirt and black high heeled boots.

"Oh, it's nice to meet you Manie. As you already know, I'm Amy, Sonic's girlfriend."

Sonic sighed, his stomach seemed to churn at that moment, but he tried to ignore it. Shadow suddenly appeared next to him, making Sonic jump slightly.

"You alright?" the black hedgehog whispered.

"Yeah. Why'd you ask?" replied Sonic, also whispering.

"You look like you need to puke."

Manie's ears suddenly twitched. When she turned around, she saw the most handsome guy that ever existed. The way that the red streaks on his body stood out against his black fur made her feel all bubbly inside. And the way those crimson eyes looked exactly like rubies dazzled her.

"Uh...Manie?" Amy said, trying to figure out why the green hedgehog was staring in Sonic and Shadow's direction.

"I'M IN LOVE!" she suddenly cried, running over to Shadow, jumping on him, making the black hedgehog fall to the ground with her on top of him. "Hi there. What's a nice handsome man doing around these parts?"

Shadow couldn't think of anything to say. Who the heck was this girl? And _why_ had she decided to fall in love with _him_?

Sonic on the other hand sighed as Amy walked over to them. "Could you please get off of Shadow, big brother?"

Amy and Shadow froze in shock to what Sonic had just said.

...Big brother...

"WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?" both Shadow and Amy cried in unison.

- - -

"I'm ever so sorry, I should have told you," said Manie apologetically. "My real name is Manic. I used to be a boy but..."

The four hedgehogs were sat in the small café part of the hotel, Sonic and Amy were sat facing Manie and Shadow. The black hedgehog's eye occasionally twitched.

"Manic...why did you—"

"Because mother would never have accepted it!" Manie cut Sonic off. "Do you know how hard it is to only be interested in men when your mother expects you to marry a woman and have children!? Every single party that mother hold she purposely invites woman around my age just to try and get me to fall in love with one of them. But they disgust me! All they care about with a person is their looks! If they look hot then they think 'Hey! Let's ask that guy out so we look good in public!' I can't stand it! That's why I turned to the men. I mean, sure they can be like that too. But then there's the whole concept of me being gay, so they just walk away from me, they treat me differently. So in the end, I made myself like this so that not only could I be in love with men, but so I can prove that if I fall in love with someone, it's out of pure love. Not how hot they look."

Shadow's eye yet again twitched. _'Well he's not doing a good job of it at the moment,'_ he thought.

"She must not love you that much then. Your mother, I mean," Amy said suddenly, causing all eyes to fall on her.

"How dare you! Mother loved me very much!" cried Manic— I mean Manie, standing up and slamming the palms of her hands on the table.

"Then why wouldn't she accept you?"

Manie was silent.

"If your mother truly loved you, then she wouldn't mind if you're gay or straight. I mean, she may have a bit of trouble coming to terms with it at first. But eventually, she'll learn to accept it. Because that's what you want; what makes you happy. And if she truly loved you as a parent would...then she would want nothing more than for you to be happy."

Manie stared at the pink hedgehog, wide eyed before sitting back down. She brought her hands up to her face, tears falling down like mini streams. "I..." she said. "...I never thought...I never thought about it like that before..."

"Manie...does mother even know that you're like this. Or where you are, for that matter?" Sonic questioned his brother.

"I ran away eight months ago. In the second month I became like this. I haven't been in contact with mother since I left. I bet Sonia's been worried sick about me."

"Sonia?" Amy asked, looking up at Sonic.

"Our sister," replied the blue hedgehog.

"Call them. Both of them," Shadow said, causing Manie to look up at him. "If your mother and sister are worried, call them. Tell them what's happened. It's like Amy said: if your mother loved you, then she'd accept the fact that you're now a woman."

Manie looked at Shadow, a faint blush on her face before she nodded, smiling brightly. "I will," she replied. "Where's the nearest phone?"

"You can borrow my cellphone," Amy kindly offered, handing Manie her pink cellphone.

- - -

Knuckles could do nothing but stare at the new guest. His eye often twitched as strange thoughts entered his mind. Just about all of them scared him. He had no idea what he should say at this moment in time. And it was all because of _her_!

She sat on one of the couches in the lounge area a pretty smile that only suited a girl. Not a man who had turned themselves into a girl. The red echidna couldn't help but stare at her chest. Why the heck did she want them _that_ big? They were larger than Rouges!

Speaking of Rouge, she was the first one to speak after the brief silence. "So, you're Sonic's...sister?" she asked.

"Well I am now," Manie replied cheerfully, the smile still present on her face.

"It's so nice to meet you, Manie. My name's Cream," the young rabbit introduced herself, holding Cheese in her arms and not seeming fazed at all by Manic— MANIE! "And this is Cheese." But then again, a six year old shouldn't really know much about sex change operations.

"Oh wow! A Chao! It's so cute!!" Manie squealed, taking Cheese from Creams arms and hugging him tightly.

"Haven't you ever seen a Chao before, miss?"

"Where Sonic and I grew up there weren't any Chaos for miles. It's a shame really. Things this cute should be shared with the world!"

Everyone, except for Cream and Charmy, sweat-dropped. Perhaps Manie was trying a little _too_ hard to act like a woman.

- - -

The black hedgehog sat quietly by the sea with his eyes closed, the sound of the waves calming him slightly. Everyone else was inside being introduced to Manie. _'That __**guy**__ must have problems,'_ he thought. Something Manie had said earlier suddenly flowed into Shadow's mind

"_Because mother would never have accepted it!"_

He slightly understood now why Sonic didn't really want anyone else to know. If Manie was scared about what his mother would think about his sexuality even though he wasn't in a relationship, he could only just imagine how scared Sonic must be since he _is_ in a relationship.

Shadow was suddenly knocked to the ground, something heavy on top of him.

"SHADOW! MY DARLING BELOVED! I MISSED YOU!" Manie's voice cried, squeezing Shadow tightly.

"Breathing...becoming...problem..." Shadow managed to say due to the fact that his lungs were practically being crushed.

Manie laughed cheerfully, jumping off of Shadow and placing her hands behind her back, her eyes looking at the ground and a blush on her face. "Um, Shadow?"

"Yeah, what?" replied the other hedgehog, standing up and brushing some of the sand off his torso.

"I was wondering...would you like to go on a date with me?"

"WHAA?!"

"Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! I'll do anything if you say 'yes'! ANYTHING! I'll love you, groom you, cook for you, sing to you, shop for you, clean your thing! I don't care if you cheat! I'll forgive you! Even if you do it again I'll still forgive you! I—"

Shadow had cut Manie off by placing his hand over her mouth. "I'm...sorry," he said, looking Manie straight in the eye.

When Shadow took his hand away from her mouth, Manie frowned. "There's someone else isn't there!"

Shadow said nothing.

"Is it Rouge? Please tell me it's not Rouge!"

"It isn't."

"Then who!?"

Shadow stared at him— her for a brief moment before replying: "It's no one. I'm...I'm not interested at the moment."

The green hedgehog gave him a pleading look. "Can we at least be friends?" she asked.

"I don't make friends."

"...Wow, my brother was right about you. You are a low-life, selfish bastard, aren't you?"

Shadow looked at the camera, sweat-dropping.

"THAT'S WHY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!" Manie was about to jump up on Shadow again when she remembered that Shadow wasn't interested in her. "Sorry."

There was yet another brief silence. For those of you who want to meet Shadow, there probably won't be much of an engaging conversation between you both. He is the silent type, remember?

He sighed, closing his eyes. "If it...If it means that much to you, then I'll walk you along the end of the ocean."

Manie's eyes lit up. She smiled before clinging to Shadow's arm and began walking.

- - -

Everyone sat in the dining hall eating their supper. Charmy was occasionally flicking his food at Vector with his fork, earning complaints from the croc. Espio sat close to them, his eyes closed as he tried to ignore his idiotic partners.

"For the last time, Charmy: Will ya stop throwing your food at me!" Vector yelled at the bee who only stared before flicking yet another bit of his food at him.

Rouge sat next to Wave, both of them talking lightly and occasionally giggling at something whilst staring at one of the boys. Tails sat next to Cream, laughing as Cheese attempted to eat a cake twice the size as him. Amy sat next to Sonic, clinging to his arm whilst Manie did the same with Shadow; despite the fact that the black hedgehog said he wasn't interested in her. Knuckles, Jet and Storm were with them too, laughing at their misery. So cruel. Lady Vanilla had apparently gone to bed already.

"Hey guys..." Sonic said, Amy still clinging to him. "Don't you think we should call it a night?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired, myself," replied Espio.

"Mommy said we should rest up because tomorrow we're gonna have a treasure hunt!" exclaimed Cream, Cheese squeaking his name.

"A treasure hunt!?" Rouge, Jet, Wave and Storm all said at once, drool hanging from their mouths.

The others only laughed before standing up and retiring to their rooms.

- - -

Sonic lay on his bed, his arms behind the back of his head. He was deep in thought. He had heard that when his brother had called his mother she seemed quite shocked. But he also heard that she understood that if he preferred to be a woman then he should have a right to.

Sonic was so deep in thought that he didn't notice Shadow come out of the en suit bathroom and was now on the bed, hovering over him. "What's on your mind, Sonic?" he asked, moving his face closer to Sonic's and placing a hand on the blue hedgehog's cheek.

"I was just thinking about Manie. And that he told mother about him becoming female to be with men," replied Sonic, finally noticing Shadow hovering above him.

"I know how to take your mind off it." Shadow smirked before closing the gap between him and Sonic in a deep and passionate kiss. His hand still on Sonic's cheek while the other one went to his back, pushing Sonic closer to him which deepened their kiss.

Sonic moaned as he felt Shadow's tongue enter his mouth and brush softly against his own. His body suddenly seemed to heat up as he let his arms fall loosely, brushing against the bed covers. He loved these kinds of moments where he felt so safe and secure in his lover's arms. If he remembered correctly, this was how their night started off when he first lost his virginity.

"SHADOW! I JUST CAME TO SAY GOODNIGHT!" cried a certain green hedgehog, bouncing through the door.

The two male hedgehogs broke apart and looked at the door to see Manie stood there with a lilac vest and a pair of lilac underwear on. They both looked shocked as Manie stared at the two, a blank look on her face.

"Sonic...Shadow..." she said slowly.

Sonic sat up outstretching his arms and waving his hands around furiously. "M—Manie! It's—it's not what you think!"

The green hedgehog shut the door, before looking at them. A smile grew on her face. "AWA! So _that's_ why you wouldn't go out with me, Shadow! It's 'cos you're my brother's boyfriend."

"N—No! That's not it!"

Manie closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's okay, Sonic. I understand everything now. You're both in a secret relationship, aren't you? No one but us knows. You're so lucky, little brother. I thought you looked a lot more happier than usual when I got here."

"Manie...Promise you won't tell anyone. Please!"

"I promise. You two deserve to be happy. And at least you found someone. Unlike me."

There was a brief silence between the three for a while.

"Anyway," the green hedgehog smiled, "I wish you good luck in your relationship together. But just 'cos you're my brother, Sonic, my love for Shadow has _not_ died so you better watch out or else I might steal him from you!" Manie grinned before running out of the room.

As soon as Manie left the room, Shadow rushed to the door and locked it. He turned to Sonic to see him staring at the bed covers, a thoughtful look on his face. He sighed and turned off the light before sitting down next to his love and putting an arm around his shoulder.

"That wasn't too bad now, was it?" he asked softly.

"But the only reason it didn't faze my brother was because he used to be gay before he had the operation," replied Sonic, leaning against Shadow, his eyes drooping. "I'm sure that everyone else will react completely different. It's just gonna be so hard."

Shadow sighed before nudging Sonic, telling him to get off the bed so that he could pull back the covers. Soon, the two hedgehogs had settled down into their bed and had gone to sleep, Sonic cuddling up to Shadow.

- - -

"You're leaving already?"

Manie turned to her brother as he asked her that question. She had a pink backpack on her back. She smiled sadly before replying: "I'm sorry, Sonic. But I promised I'd go home and see mother. She wants to know what I look like now."

"Well, when you see, tell I said 'hi'. And Sonia too."

The two hedgehog's hugged each other before Manie turned to the door. A smirk grew on her face as she turned back around, running up to Shadow and pecking him lightly on the cheek before running out the door.

- - -

**Yipeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's my third chapter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**Sonic: You seem hyper again. Are you always like that?**

**Only on Wednesdays.**

**Sonic: Why Wednesday?**

**Cos I'm in a bad mood on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**Shadow: It's simple, you idiot. Tsuki is always in a bad mood on Wednesday because it's halfway through the week and she thinks that can't take school anymore. So to stop herself from being in a bad mood, she makes herslf hyper by killing twenty people.**

**JESUS CHRIST, SHADOW! I NEVER KNEW YOU WERE **_**THAT**_** SMART!**

**Shadow: Well I **_**am**_** the Ultimate Life Form.**

**Sonic: Again with the Ultimate Life Form thing. That's getting really old.**

**Shadow: DIS ME AGAIN AND YOU **_**DIE**_**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	4. Phase IV

**Hi everyone! Sorry it took so long to update but I actually wrote this chapter a while back but I only had it saved on my pendrive and I lost my pendrive. **

**Sonic: Didn't you think to back it up on the computer?**

**What's thinking?...**

**Sonic: While she sits and drools all over the floor, I guess that I should tell you that Tsukimomo doesn't own me or any other characters related to me.**

- - -

Phase IV: Treasure Hunting, Beach Style"

The sun shone brightly down on the wide beach, causing the white sand to look whiter. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, Cream, Vector, Charmy, Espio, Jet, Wave and Storm all stood together while Lady Vanilla stood a little in front of her, a whistle around her neck. Everyone had a map in their hands.

"Okay then, the rules of the hunt are simple. First one who finds the treasure and brings it back here wins. However, once someone has found the treasure, you are allowed to try and snatch it off of them. You must all return once the sun is no longer visible above the ocean," she explained.

Knuckles looked around. "Hey, where's Rouge at?" he asked.

Shadow, who was next to him, smirked. "Why? Do you miss her?"

The echidna's muzzle turned the same color as his fur. "N—No!"

"I almost forgot to mention that you are allowed to work in a team and you can share the prize at the end. However you are allowed to betray your partner and take it for yourself," Lady Vanilla added to the first few rules. "Now then, is everyone ready? BEGIN!"

- - -

Sonic walked, yes walked, along the seafront, making sure that the water didn't touch his sneakers. He was actually quite surprised that Amy hadn't jumped on him yet. But he was glad she hadn't since it gave him some alone time to think. He gasped lightly as a wave gently lapped at his feet. Oh how he hated water. Not just because he couldn't swim, but for another reason.

"_Mommy!"_

Sonic flinched, trying to block the voice from his head. But unfortunately, it didn't work. Memories flooded back to him. Memories off him lost deep in the ocean. No one was around for miles, meaning that he was all alone. His limbs floated freely through the water as his eyes slowly closed...

"Sonic?"

Said hedgehog, being snapped out of his thoughts, spun around. His eyes met with the ruby ones of a certain black hedgehog. "Oh, Shadow...What's up?" he asked, faking a smile.

Shadow frowned. He knew that smile was fake. Something must've been bothering the azure hedgehog. Asking about it may make matters worse. But then again, Sonic was stubborn so he would probably keep denying everything. "I thought Amy would be with you," he said, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah I thought so to. But I'm glad she's not here cos it gives me time to think. Hey, I know! Why don't we work together? It'll be easier with the two of us!"

Shadow smirked. "Sure."

- - -

"Are you _sure_ that this is the right way, Vector?" asked Espio. He, Vector and Charmy had been wandering the beach for what seemed like hours, and it felt as though they were going in circles.

Said crocodile turned to the chameleon and smirked. "Of course I'm sure! I'm following my instincts! Now then, my instincts tell me to turn left."

"Well in that case I'm turning right."

Vector growled as he watched his team members wander off in a different direction. "Hey! Come back here!"

"Hey look!" Charmy said, suddenly, pointing to a spot behind some rocks. Curiously, Espio and Vector looked at what the kid bumblebee was pointing at. They saw Cream and Tails together smiling, Cheese by the rabbit's side.

"Gasp! We must protect Cream!"

"What from? There's nothing nearby that could harm her," Espio stated matter-of-factly.

"Of course there is! The fox! Don't you see? He's a boy and Cream is a girl. It won't be long before the fox brat tries to get dirty with her. You know what I mean?"

"Not really."

"I never know what you mean," replied Charmy, seeming rather proud of that fact.

"Vector, Tails is only eight. I don't think he's want to try and get dirty with a six year old."

"So Tails wants to get dirty with me now?"

"No you idiot!" snapped the crocodile. "Anyway, c'mon! We must protect Cream before it's too late!"

"Why don't you ever listen to me?" the chameleon sighed.

- - -

Sonic sat on a large rock, once again staring out at the ocean with hazy eyes. It was around noon, so Shadow had announced that he was going to get something to eat and drink for the two of them. He had left quite a while ago and the blue hedgehog was starting get a little lonesome. The sound of a group of girls soon snapped him out of his thoughts.

"I'm telling you two, Sonic wouldn't any thing like," one voice said.

"Well we've questioned just about every other guy on the beach. Who else could it be?" a second voice retaliated.

"She has a point you know," added a third voice. "And besides, he's _always_ been dieing to see a girl in a bikini even though he's seen one about a hundred times!"

Sonic looked down to see Amy, Rouge and Wave walking straight towards him. Both Rouge and Wave were frowning while Amy looked somewhat worried. Rouge pointed an accusing finger at him. "Where were you this morning at **10am**?!"

"I—I was—" Sonic was unable to finish his sentence. Truthfully, he had been with Shadow at that time doing...things...But he couldn't let them know. Amy would be berserk, Rouge would probably laugh herself to death, and Wave probably wouldn't do anything...which was good...but then again he didn't know her as well as he knew Amy and Rouge.

"Sonic was with _me_ at that time," a fourth voice announced, its owner appearing next to Sonic, two cans of soda in his hands.

"Shadow..." Sonic whispered so softly that no one but Shadow himself could hear it.

"And just _what_ were you both doing?" Wave questioned, folding her arms.

"Our room seemed a little messy, so we both decided to clean it up a bit," replied the ebony hedgehog.

"You see? I told you Sonic wouldn't be the one!" cheered Amy, clapping her hands together.

"I guess I owe you an apology, Sonic...sorry," Rouge said. She then turned to the other two girls, a determined look on her face. "Come on! We need to find that peeping tom before he gets away!"

The other two girls nodded before all three of them walked off. Sonic and Shadow stared at them, unsure of what just happened. Shadow sighed before handing Sonic a can of soda and sitting down next to him before taking a sip from his own can.

"Shadow..." Sonic trailed off.

"Hm?" Shadow replied, letting the younger hedgehog know that he had acknowledged him.

"...I...It's nothing..."

Shadow sighed. "What's bugging you?" A frown was clearly visible on his face. Sonic seemed like he was hesitating. And Sonic only hesitated when he was nervous. When Sonic didn't answer, his facial expression softened lightly. "You know you can tell me," he said, placing a hand atop of Sonic's.

"No. It's really nothing." The azure hedgehog stood, taking the last gulp from his soda. "Now come on, Shadow! Let's go find that treasure!"

Shadow frowned again before finishing off his can and following Sonic who was now back on the sand.

- - -

"Damn this compass to hell!" a very annoyed Knuckles yelled at the top of his lungs. In his left hand was the map that everyone had while in his right hand was a compass he had bought at the gift shop before heading to the beach. And it seemed as though the compass wasn't working correctly, much to Knuckles' displeasure.

A laugh from behind him caused Knuckles to turn around. He scowled as he saw none other than Storm. "Having a little trouble?" he asked, smirking.

Knuckles' scowl deepened. "What do _you_ want, Storm?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothing. If you call laughing at your stupidity nothing then that's exactly what I'm doing."

"Yeah well if I was doing nothing then I'd be the one laughing at you!"

"Pft! Yeah right. Say, how about we make this treasure hunt a little interesting?"

"I'm listening..."

"Okay, if I find the treasure before you, then you have to be my slave for the rest of this vacation. And if by some chance you win, then I'll be your slave. Do we have a deal?"

Knuckles stared at the albatross for a moment before a smirk found its way to his face. "You're on!"

- - -

The sun sat lazily above the water, being reflected by the large ocean. The sky had turned a deep orange, and the clouds were a pinkish color. It was starting to become a little chilly now as small breezes passed by quite often. A pair of emerald green eyes stared out at the orange tainted ocean. Sonic sat on a large rock that looked out over the ocean. Only a short while before the treasure hunt would be over. A sigh was heard from close by.

"Looks like we didn't have any luck," stated Shadow, his arms folded across his chest. "We should start heading back."

Sonic simply nodded and stood as Shadow began walking away. But as Sonic stood, part of the rock where he was standing crumbled away, causing his foot to slip. He couldn't keep his balance and soon found himself falling.

"SHADOW!"

Said hedgehog instantly turned around, hearing his name being called desperately by the one he loved. But when he turned there was nobody there. Panicking, Shadow quickly ran to the edge and looked down at the water below. The water seemed to be moving as though something had been dropped in it. Sonic must have fallen in! The ruby-eyed hedgehog took in a deep breath before diving off the edge of the rock into the water. His eyes stung slightly as the salt water smacked against them, but he quickly put that aside, turning his head left and right until he spotted it. Sonic's body was slowly falling to the bottom of the ocean.

Shadow quickly dived down and scooped him up before heading back to the surface, breathing in a large amount of air as he did so. He wasted no time in heading back to shore. When he lay Sonic's body against the wet sand, to his horror it seemed lifeless. He placed his black ear against Sonic's chest where his heart should be. There was something, but it was very faint. There was only one thing to do in order to save his blue hedgehog love.

The ebony hedgehog took in yet another deep breath of air before placing his mouth atop of Sonic's, pumping air into his lungs. He did this a few times before Sonic began coughing vigorously, water coming out with each cough. Shadow sat him up on his lap and rubbed the azure hedgehog's back, helping him clear his lungs.

When the coughing finally died down, Sonic looked up into Shadow's ruby eyes lazily. "Sh—Shadow? I thought I— I thought I was going to die," he said, his voice a little croaky due to all the coughing he had just been doing.

Shadow put his arm around Sonic, pulling his body a little closer to his, his head resting atop of Sonic's. "It's okay. I'm here. You're safe," he replied in a hushed voice, closing his eyes.

"I—I was so—so sc—scared," the azure hedgehog sobbed. And for a hero to admit that his was scared of something wasn't often done. Shadow gently rocked back and forth, stroking the blue speedster's quills softly. If an inexperienced person were to stroke a hedgehog with quills likes Sonic's, they would probably cut themselves and possibly bleed to death. But since Shadow had done this so may times before, and he was a hedgehog himself, he knew just how to do it without getting a single scratch.

He did this for about twenty minutes, even though Sonic had calmed down after only a few. Shadow gently placed a kiss upon the azure hedgehog's head, whispering to him: "I would _never_ let you die."

Sonic turned his head so that he could look up at Shadow, his eyes still red from crying. "Do you really mean that?" he asked.

Shadow nodded before placing his lips atop of Sonic's again, this time in a deep and passionate kiss. But unbeknownst to them, a group of eyes were watching.

- - -

**GASP! Who do this group eyes belong to?**

**Sonic: You write this fic, shouldn't you know?**

**I have short term memory loss.**

**Sonic: Since when? **

**...WHO THE HECK ARE YOU!?!?!?!?!?!?**

**Sonic: Whoa! Calm down! **

**Shadow: (taking out a pack of energy tablets and placing it into his mouth) She wasn't kidding when she told me that these energy tablets make her go crazy.**

**Sonic: You fed her **_**ENERGY TABLETS?!?!?!?!?!?!**_

**Shadow: She told me that she knew about the **_**thing**_**! And if I didn't give her a tablet then she'd tell everybody!!**

**Sonic: How the heck did she figure out about the **_**thing**_**?**

_**I KNOW EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

**Sonic: O.O**

**Shadow: O.O**

**Sonic:...**

**Shadow:...**

**Sonic: :)**

**Shadow: :)**

**Sonic: -.-'**

**Shadow: -.-'**

**Sonic: STOP COPYING ME!!!!!**

**Shadow: NO!**

**BITCH FIGHT!!!!! Review please!**


	5. Phase V

**Hello again and Happy New Year! This chapter is mainly about what some of the other characters get up to during the treasure hunt. Oh yeah, and during my spare time if have begun writing another sonadow fic that I will post after I finished this one. I'll give you all a sneek peek in the very last chapter, okay?**

**Anyway, I don't own Sonic or any other related characters. Now please enjoy!**

- - -

Phase V: Treasure Hunting, Beach Style! (Part II)

"And tell me again, _why_ exactly do you want to work with us?"

Vector looked at the yellow fox who had asked that question, looking offended. "Don't you want a chance to work with the great _Chaotix Detective Agency?_" he asked.

Tails rolled his eyes. Soon after the treasure hunt had begun, Cream had run up to him with Cheese flying by her side, asking if they could both work together and split the prize. Wanting to spend some alone time with the rabbit was exactly what Tails had wanted, and it seemed as though that was what he was getting. But then, those three idiots turned up. Well, Espio was smarter than both Vector and Charmy, but they were still all idiots at times.

"Isn't this great, Tails?" said Cream who was stood by Tails' side. "Now that there are more of us we have a better chance of finding the treasure," she added, seeming excited. Cheese, who was sat atop of the girl's head, squeaked and nodded, seeming excited too.

Tails on the other hand was not all that excited. Either they would end up getting lost, or those three would steal the treasure from them and run off. "Well, I guess they can tag along. But why us? Couldn't you have gone and worked with someone else?"

"Well, it's just that we..." Vector scratched his noggin, trying to come up with an excuse as to why the three of them wanted to work with the fox and rabbit.

"It's 'cos Vector does nothing but get us lost!" piped Charmy, buzzing around the small group in circles. "And besides, you're much smarter than the three of us put together."

'_If it weren't for the fact that he thinks Tails will do something to that girl than that __**would**__ be the reason why we decided to join with them,'_ Espio said to himself, sweat-dropping.

The twin tailed fox sighed. "Well, okay. But just leave the navigating to me."

"Oh, but of course," replied Vector, clasping his hands together. He then pointed in a direction. "Now, let's go that way!"

'_This is gonna be a long day,'_ Tails sighed.

- - -

It was official. They were lost. Charmy was buzzing around once again, Espio was leaning against a large rock, Vector was trying to think of which way they should go, Cream was giggling while she watched Vector throwing fits, while Tails...well, let's just say that he defiantly _wasn't_ happy. In fact, if you paid attention, then you would notice the steam rising from where his blood was boiling.

"You idiots! If you had just left the navigating to me like I told you to, then we wouldn't be in this situation!" the young fox snapped, mainly aiming his words at Vector.

"Well excuse me for trying to help you look for the treasure!" Vector spat in Tails' face.

"Say it, don't spray it."

"CHEESE!"

The bickering animals turned to look at Cream who was looking around frantically. She seemed worried and looked as though she was about to cry.

"Cream, what's wrong?" Tails was the first to ask.

The small rabbit turned to him. I can't find Cheese!" she cried. "We need to find him! He could be in danger!"

"Please, calm down, Cream."

"Don't you worry Cream, the _Chaotix Detective Agency_ is on the case," said Vector, posing while Espio and Charmy stood on either sides of him with their arms folded. This earned a small giggle from the rabbit's mouth, but she soon began crying.

"We need to find him soon. Who knows what could have happened to him."

"Well," Tails looked at the detectives. "You guys are the professionals, what do we do first?"

"Charmy, the book!" demanded the crocodile.

Said bumblebee pulled a book out of his pocket and handed it to Vector. "Here you go."

The crocodile cleared his throat before flipping through the pages. "Aha! Here we are! 'Finding a missing item or person'. It says here that the first thing we do is to retrace our steps."

"Well, that shouldn't be too hard. All we have to do is look for our footprints and follow them backwards," stated Tails.

"Exactly what I was thinking!"

Charmy flew up to Tails. "Hey, you're good," he said then turned to Vector. "Can we think about hiring this kid?"

"At your pay I'd be better off as I am now and I'm still just a kid," said the young fox.

- - -

They had looked everywhere. Well, everywhere they thought that they had been. But still, they had not found Cheese. The group had decided to rest by the shore as the sun was ever so slowly heading towards the ocean. Cream was crying about how worried she was when Charmy spotted a rather dark and scary looking cave.

"Um, hey guys, how about we check in there?" he asked, pointing towards the dark cave.

"I'm not so sure that a small chao would want to go in a dark cave," Espio pointed out.

"Well, Cheese is quite adventurous," Cream stated.

"In the cave it is then!" said Vector.

- - -

Meanwhile, somewhere else on the beach, Jet the Hawk was stamping on his map, yelling to himself about how stupidly inaccurate it was. "If people are gonna make maps, they should at least make sure that it makes sense!" he said, still stamping on his map. He sighed before looking around. "And just _where_ are my team mates!"

Somewhere behind him, Knuckles and Storm both ran past both screaming about what they were gonna make the other do once they were his slave.

"Storm! What are you doing?"

The albatross stopped, looking over at his boss. "I was just looking for the treasure so that the stupid knucklehead doesn't make me his slave!" he replied.

"Well why in blazes would he do that?"

"Because we made a bet."

"A _BET!?_ What did I tell you about making bets before running it across me, your _boss_, first!? And where is Wave?"

"She and the pink hedgehog and the white bat were asking us about someone called Tom just a few minutes ago."

"Huh? And just who is this, Tom?"

Storm scratched the back of his head. "Uh, I don't know. But I think they said his last name was Peeping."

"Tom Peeping, 'ey? ...Wait a minute! They weren't talking about Tom Peeping! They were talking about a peeping tom you nitwit!"

"I'm so sorry, boss!"

"Never mind. Now then, we need to find that treasure before the sun sets."

"I know boss, 'cos if that knucklehead finds it then I have to become his slave!"

The hawk frowned at Storm. "Well you shouldn't have made the bet in the first place!" he screamed, smacking Storm on the beak.

"Ouch!"

"But of course, finding the treasure with just the two of us may be a little difficult. We better find Wave."

- - -

While the conversation between Jet and Storm had taken place, Tails, Cream, Vector, Espio and Charmy had all entered the dark and scary cave, all of them thinking to themselves that they weren't scared. But that was proven wrong when a small drop of water fell from the ceiling and landed on Vector's back. The crocodile had frozen and then started screaming, his voice echoing through the cave and scaring him even more.

"VECTOR! CALM DOWN! IT'S ONLY YOUR ECHO!" Tails said, hoping that Vector had heard him since his voice also echoed through the cave.

"WHAT!?" cried Vector, his eyes wide.

"Calm down, it's okay; it's just your echo."

And if course, if you were Vector, you would probably feel a bit stupid after letting those who thought you were big and tough see that little performance, as Vector felt. The fact that both Espio and Charmy were both snickering to themselves didn't help him feel any better.

"How long do you think this tunnel is gonna go on for?" Charmy asked.

Tails, who had a flashlight in his hand, turned his head to look back at the kid bumblebee. "I'm not sure," he replied. He then looked at the map. "I can't see a cave anywhere on this map so we could be a while. But if we're lucky then it shouldn't be much longer."

"Let's hope that that it won't take too long so we can hurry and get out of this cave. If Cheese is in here then he's probably scared to death," Vector said, resulting in a small gasp of horror coming from Cream. "But I'm sure he's okay," the croc quickly added.

"Wouldn't it be great if the treasure was at then end of this cave, then we can split the prize," the bumblebee said happily.

"Does anyone but Lady Vanilla know what the treasure is? I mean, for all we know it could be frilly dresses or maybe a frying pan," Espio pointed out, causing all of them to stop walking for a second before carrying on.

"I'm sure it's fancier than a frying pan, Espio," giggled Cream.

Charmy jumped up into the air, buzzing his small wings as he kept himself in the air. "Yeah, Espio! It could be a _gold_ frying pan."

Tails turned to the chameleon. "You know what I find strange?" he asked.

"What is it?" replied Espio who was ignoring Charmy shouting nonsense at him while Vector tried to jump up and grab the bumblebee to shut him up but kept hitting his head on the ceiling.

"What I find strange is that you've been with them for a very long time and you're still with them now. If they get on your nerves so much then why don't you just leave?"

"I admit that they do get on my nerves, but when I took my place in the detective agency I vowed that I would not leave my post."

Tails shrugged before looking forewords to make sure that he wasn't about to bump into something. They walked for about ten maybe fifteen minutes until the reached what looked like a large dome shaped room. There was a crystal blue pool in the centre that seemed to emit a blue glow on the walls, so bright that it even reached the ceiling. There was also a small water fall with about four steps until the water reached the pool. Plants were growing from the walls with flower heads that glowed brightly. There were also a few dark colored trees around that had round blue fruit growing on them. Small orbs the same color as the water were floating around carelessly, as if nothing mattered to them. At the very top of the room was a small hole, allowing light from the outside world to come into the room.

But the thing that gave the five animals a shock was that there were chao scattered around the cave, seeming carefree. Some were swimming or sat by the edge of the pool, some were sat on the tree branches eating the fruit growing in the trees, some were flying around checking up on everyone, and one chao that was sat on a small boulder in the room cheered happily as it so the animals and instantly flew into Cream's arms.

The rabbit laughed and hugged the chao tightly. "Cheese! I finally found you!" she cried, tears in her eyes. "I missed you so much, are you okay?"

"Chao chao!" replied the blue chao happily.

"Well I'll be...It's a chao garden," exclaimed Vector, looking around in awe.

"Who would have guessed," Espio added.

"Hi there," Tails greeted the chao that were now coming towards them. They were all a neutral, but were different types such as swim, fly, speed, power, and well, neutral. "You guys didn't happen to find any treasure around here did you?"

The group of chao looked at one another before flying off somewhere that Tails couldn't see. The emerged soon after, a new chao following them. It body was white and it had two locks on each side of its head that were blue and seemed transparent. Its hands were the same. Its stomach and the top of its head were a turquoise color as well as the tips of its feet. Atop of its head, where an emotion-ball usually was, was what looked like a small sun. Its eyes also seemed to be an emerald green and its face was emotionless. In Tails' view, it looked a bit like Chaos Zero.

Everyone stared at this new chao. They had never seen one like this before, and it looked important. As the chao stop before them, it bowed before smiling. The miniature sun on its head glowed brightly, as a voice entered the mammals' minds.

"_Good evening, I am the head of this small garden. We are honored to have you here."_ The voice seemed cute yet demanding at the same time so they quickly came to the conclusion that it was the new chao that was speaking. _"My friends tell me that you want to know about some sort of treasure, am I correct?"_

"Yes sir," the yellow fox said formally.

"_Please, call me Sunbeam. And who do I have the honor of addressing?"_

"My name is Tails. And these are my friends, Cream, Vector, Espio, Charmy, and you may already know Cheese."

Cheese cried happily upon hearing his name being called.

"_Yes, Cheese fell down here through the hole in the ceiling. When we noticed the red bowtie on him we figured that he belonged to someone, so we took care of him until you arrived."_

"Thank you so much, Sunbeam," Cream thanked. This chao seemed taller than normal chao, so the rabbit didn't need to look down much to address it.

"_Not a problem. While you are here, why don't you relax and have some fun? And perhaps we could try looking for that treasure of yours, considering that Quarts didn't steal it."_

An angry cry from a swimming chao was heard. Its eyes looked like those of a dark chao, meaning that in its past life it must have been a dark chao.

- - -

The sun had finally been swallowed up by the sea when the five mammals had exited the cave. Despite the fact that they didn't find the treasure, they were all in a good mood after spending time with the chaos. As they stepped out onto the beach, three girls instantly stopped them in their tracks. And it just so happened to be Rouge, Wave and Amy who had done so.

Rouge pointed a finger at Tails. "You! Where were you at **10am**!?" she demanded.

"Me? I was in my room working on a little invention I brought with me. Why, did you here those strange moaning noises too?" replied the fox.

"Strange moaning noises?" inquired Amy, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, and there was a bit of banging too. I feel sorry for anyone who was still in bed."

"Looks like we'll have to look into it later," Rouge announced more to the girls by her sides than the others. "Anyway, Cream, honey, could you tell us where you were at that time?"

"Cheese and I were playing outside," replied the small rabbit, Cheese nodding in agreement.

The snow white bat then turned to the detectives. "And you?"

"We were down in the café having coffee. It took us ages to calm Charmy down," replied Vector, shaking his head while Charmy laughed sheepishly.

"Well girls, looks like another blank. Let's go see if there's anyone else to ask," suggested Wave. As the girls were about to leave, a voice called out to the swallow. A voice that sounded angry.

"Wave! Where have you been?" asked a certain green hawk, seeming irritated.

"I was helping Rouge and Amy."

"Yes, I know that."

"Then why did you ask?"

Jet growled. "Do you know how long I spent finding you and Storm? All day! I didn't even have enough time to look for the treasure! Now that the sun has gone, we don't have a chance of winning the hunt! So come on! Let's head back."

Wave sighed before turning to her friends. "Sorry girls, but I've gotta go."

Rouge and Amy both nodded. They knew what boys could be like and so they didn't take anything against the swallow as she ran off to catch up with her leader. Rouge sighed before walking away, followed by Amy. Tails noticed that Cheese wasn't with Cream anymore, and when he looked he saw the small chao peering over a group of rocks. Curiously, he walked over to see what the chao was looking at.

"Hey, Cheese, what are you doing?" he asked before looking at what Cheese was staring at. His eyes widened. There, next to the shore, was his big brother in _Shadow's_ arms with _Shadow's _lips atop of his. "S—Sonic and Shadow are...dating!?"

- - -

**So that's who the group of eyes belonged to!**

**Sonic: You let **_**Tails**_** see? His mind is too young to comprehend it!**

**Wow, Sonic. Where did you learn the word 'comprehend'?**

**Shadow asked me if my mind could comprehend the fact that I'm stupid. **

**I guess that's a no. And readers, if your wondering, Sunbeam and Quarts are both two of my chao. They're so cute! But not as cute as...SONADOW CHAO!!!**

**Sonic: What the heck!? Who's Sonadow Chao?**

**A chao that Shadow has been raising. It's a shiny chao that looks just like him but it has blue/white streaks, so its called it 'Sonadow Chao'.**

**Sonic: Can I meet him?**

**Shadow: You touch my baby, hedgehog, and I will smack you. I will smack you like a bad, bad donkey, okay. **

**Poor Sonic. I'll try getting you a picture of him. Well that's all we have time for my dear readers. And don't forget to review. More reviews equals faster updates. **


	6. Phase VI

**HELLOIT'SGOODTOSEEYOUALLMYLOVELYREADERS.**

**Sonic: For those of you who didn't get a word of that, she said: Hello it's good to see you all my lovely readers. Now can I go home!?**

**NO! Not until I've finished this chappie!!!**

**Sonic: But you kept me awake all night!!!**

**Shadow: O.O And just _how_ did she do that?**

**Sonic: She was singing Spongebob Squarepants songs all night. I HATE THAT YELLOW SQUARE!!!**

**HEY! Spongie is awsome don't diss! **

**Sonic: He's annoying!**

**Is not!**

**Shadow: While those two argue, you, the reader, should know that Tsukimomo does _not_ own Sonic, me, or any other related characters.**

**Enjoy this chapter!!**

- - -

Phase VI: Treasure Hunting, Beach Style! (Part III)

_**10am...**_

Rouge had just come out of the resort's hot spring, feeling all warm and cozy. Today would be a good day for her as it was the day of the treasure hunt. With her treasure hunting abilities the hunt would be like stealing candy from a baby. Not that Rouge would do that of course. Babies were too cute to steal from.

Just as she was about to take off the towel that she had wrapped around her body, she stopped. She quickly turned to look at the door that lead to the hot spring and saw somebody peering over the fence that separated the female hot spring from the male.

"...PEEPING TOM!!!!!"

- - -

Amy sat on a chair next to the small desk that was in her hotel room. A book lay open on the desk that she was currently reading. One of her roommates, Wave, was stood in front of the mirror fixing her bandana. She smiled in satisfaction when she had finished.

"Hey, Wave," Amy said, turning from the book to her roommate. "Shouldn't Rouge be back by now? I mean, she has been gone for a while."

"She's either flirting with Knuckles or accusing Sonic of liking Shadow again," replied the swallow.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

The door to their room suddenly slammed open, revealing a very angry looking Rouge. She stomped inside, slamming the door behind her. Wave mentally thanked the snow white bat for coming in at this moment so that she didn't have to explain the part about Rouge accusing Sonic of liking Shadow.

"Oh, Rouge, you're back! How was the hot spring?" questioned the rose pink hedgehog.

Rouge glared at her for a moment. "I was peeped on!" she replied through gritted teeth.

Both girls gasped. "By who?" Wave asked.

"I don't know. But they were peering over the fence, meaning that it was one of the boys!"

"Those lousy, rotten boys! They don't give any of us women respect! I say we find out who it was!"

"But what about the treasure hunt?" Amy pointed out.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but the treasure doesn't matter. We need to find out who was peeping on me and punish him for the pervert he is!" replied Rouge, a look of determination on her face.

- - -

The sun shone brightly on the sandy beach and reflected off of the clear ocean waves. Rouge, Amy and Wave stood with their arms crossed. Their plan was to question every guy on the beach, even if they didn't know who that person was. They were currently talking with a midnight blue echidna with green eyes who was wearing red swimming trunks.

"Look, know I know that you three chicks are hot, but I would never, and I mean _never_, peep on a girl while they were in the hot spring," the echidna stated.

"Just tell us where you were!" Rouge demanded, folding her ungloved arms across her chest.

"I admit that I was in the hot spring, but I was in the changing room at around then."

The snow white bat frowned at the echidna before turning her back to him. "C'mon, let's go find someone else to ask."

"What was that guy's name anyway?" asked Amy who had a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. "I need to know so that I can but him on the list so that we won't ask him again."

"Just put him down as _Blue Echidna_. Now then, who should we try next?" Rouge asked more to herself as she looked around at the many different guys that were on the beach. Her gaze fell upon a human who was trying to secretly take pictures of all the different girls in bikinis. "HEY!" she shouted over to him, causing the man to jump and hide his camera behind his back.

"WH—what do you want? I wasn't taking pictures of girls in bikinis! I'm serious!" he replied quickly.

"Where were you at **10am?**" asked Wave, imitating Rouge by folding her arms.

"Me? I was just getting off of the boat that comes to this resort. Why do you ask?"

"Never mind. Amy, take down this guy's name so that we can go," Rouge ordered the pink hedgehog as she and Wave began walking off.

"What was that all about?" the human asked.

"Oh, Rouge is just mad because she thinks that somebody peeped on her in the hot spring," replied the emerald eyed girl as she scribbled something down on the clipboard. "Anyway, I've gotta go. Nice to see you again Mr. Adam West."

"Goodbye."

Amy sighed as she began heading in the direction that her two friends had gone. Rouge could be so persistent at times. Whenever she made up her mind it would take hours to try and change it, maybe even days. But still, Rouge was her friend, and even though her opinion on something may be rational, she still loved her. (Not in the sexual way!)

The pink hedgehog looked up to see Rouge and Wave heading towards her. It seemed as though they had just asked a couple of guys about where they were and had taken it the wrong way, which then resulted in a little fight, one that the two girls could easily win.

"Can you believe the nerve of those guys? I asked them where they were at **10am** and they both think that I'm trying to prosecute them for something!" Rouge announced.

"But...Rouge...Isn't that what we're doing, though. I mean, we're trying to find that Peeping Tom. So if we go around asking people where they were at the time you were peeped on, isn't that technically prosecuting them?"

"Huh, I never thought of it like that. Oh well, too late now." Rouge sighed and looked to see what time it was when she remembered she had forgotten to put on her watch. "Anyone got the time?"

"It around noon," replied Wave, looking at her custom made digital watch. "So, who are we gonna asked next?"

The three girls thought for a moment before Rouge snapped her fingers. "I got it! We'll ask Sonic!"

"What? But Sonic wouldn't—"

"Come on, let's go!" Rouge interrupted Amy's protest and grabbed a hold of her wrist, dragging the girl along with her. "It seems as though you still have feelings for that blue hedgehog, then, 'ey?"

"Yeah, of course I do. I love Sonic!" the pink hedgehog replied, cheerfully.

Rouge frowned. If her suspicions about Sonic being in love with Shadow were right, then she couldn't bear to find out what would happen if her best friend knew. She knew that Amy had been the blue speedster's self-proclaimed-girlfriend since the first time the girl had laid eyes upon him. And how would you feel if you saw the one you love making out with someone that was supposed to be their rival as well as them both being the same gender? "Anyway," the bat said slowly, we need to find him. You never know who a peeper could be until you find out for yourself."

"I'm telling you two, Sonic wouldn't do anything like that."

"Well we've questioned just about every other guy on the beach. Who else could it be?" Wave retaliated.

"She has a point you know," added Rouge, letting go of Amy's hand. "And besides, he's _always_ been dieing to see a girl in a bikini even though he's seen one about a hundred times!" The three girls looked ahead to see Sonic sat on a large rock in front of them. Rouge and Wave frowned at him while Amy tried not to look worried. Rouge pointed a finger at him. "Where were you this morning at **10am**?!"

"I—I was—" Rouge raised an eyebrow as she noticed Sonic's hesitation. Was this it? Had they found their Peeping Tom?

"Sonic was with _me_ at that time," a voice announced, its owner appearing next to Sonic, two cans of soda in his hands.

Rouge was now a little curious. What if these two were up to something naughty? They could have been having...But then again, they could have just been hanging out. Those two had seemed to be hanging around each other lately. And just because they were then that didn't mean that they were doing things with each other, right?

"And just _what_ were you doing?" Wave questioned, folding her arms.

"Our room seemed a little messy, so we both decided to clean it up a bit," replied the ebony hedgehog.

"You see? I told you Sonic wouldn't be the one!" cheered Amy, clapping her hands together.

"I guess I owe you an apology, Sonic...sorry," Rouge said. She then turned to the other two girls, a determined look on her face. "Come on! We need to find that Peeping Tom before he gets away!"

So for several more hours, Rouge, Amy and Wave looked around the beach, asking a variety of men where they were at the time Rouge was peeped on. It seemed as though they were out of luck as every man had backup about where they were at the time and none of them were at the hot spring. They had even asked Knuckles and Storm, but both of them weren't anywhere near the hot spring. It soon came to a point where the sun had set behind the great blue sea, and all three of them were exhausted. They were about to give up until they noticed a group of their friends exiting a cave.

Rouge was first to speak, pointed a finger at Tails. "You! Where were you at **10am**!?" she demanded.

"Me? I was in my room working on a little invention I brought with me. Why, did you here those strange moaning noises too?" replied the fox.

"Strange moaning noises?" inquired Amy, raising an eyebrow. Rouge thought to herself for a moment. Wasn't Sonic and Shadow's room close to Tails' room?

"Yeah, and there was a bit of banging too. I feel sorry for anyone who was still in bed."

Rouge couldn't help but let a small chuckle to herself that nobody heard. 'A bit of banging'? Now she had a pretty clear idea of what those two were _really_ doing. Not that it bothered her. At least she knew now what they were actually up to at around **10am** so there was no way that one of them could be the Peeping Tom. "Looks like we'll have to look into it later," she announced more to the girls by her sides than the others. "Anyway, Cream, honey, could you tell us where you were at that time?"

"Cheese and I were playing outside," replied the small rabbit, Cheese nodding in agreement.

Hm, typical Cream. So cute and innocent. It couldn't possibly be either of them. The snow white bat then turned to the detectives. "And you?"

"We were down in the café having coffee. It took us ages to calm Charmy down," replied Vector, shaking his head while Charmy laughed sheepishly. Rouge guessed that Charmy had become hyper due to the caffeine and caused havoc. The café was quite far away from the hot spring so it couldn't have been them.

"Well girls, looks like another blank. Let's go see if there's anyone else to ask," suggested Wave. As the girls were about to leave, a voice called out to the swallow. A voice that sounded angry.

"Wave! Where have you been?" asked a certain green hawk, seeming irritated.

"I was helping Rouge and Amy."

"Yes, I know that."

"Then why did you ask?"

Jet growled. "Do you know how long I spent finding you and Storm? All day! I didn't even have enough time to look for the treasure! Now that the sun has gone, we don't have a chance of winning the hunt! So come on! Let's head back."

Wave sighed before turning to her friends. "Sorry girls, but I've gotta go."

Rouge and Amy both nodded. They knew what boys could be like and so they didn't take anything against the swallow as she ran off to catch up with her leader. Rouge sighed before walking away, followed by Amy. They walked in silence as the beach slowly became darker. Amy was first to speak up.

"Hey, Rouge?" she said, stopping in her tracks. Rouge turned to look at her, letting the pink hedgehog that she had heard her. "It's getting kind of dark. And Lady Vanilla had said to everyone to come back to where everyone started off after sundown."

"When was this?" the jewel lover questioned.

"You were complaining to the hotel manager at the time. And you met up with us a few minutes after the hunt had begun."

Rouge sighed. It looked as though Amy was right. There was no use in staying all night looking for someone that clearly wasn't on the beach. So instead, she told her companion to lead the way back to where everyone was meeting up. When they had reached their destination, everyone was already there, chatting quietly amongst themselves.

"Any luck?" Wave asked who was sat on a deck chair next to Jet who seemed to be in a fowl mood.

Rouge's head dropped. "Unfortunately no. We couldn't find him."

"Well next time you go to the hot spring, we'll come with you and if that Peeping Tom is there then I'll smash him with one of my wrenches!"

"Yeah! And I'll use my Piko Pko Hammer!" Amy added, cheerfully.

Rouge tried to smile at her two friends. "Thanks, guys." Her gaze suddenly shifted over to where Sonic and Shadow sat on what looked like a log, both of them had towels wrapped around them. Curiously, she strode over to the two hedgehogs. "Hey, guys, what happened?" she asked with false sympathy.

Sonic sneezed before replying, "Hi Rouge. I kind of fell in the water."

"And why is Shadow wet?"

"There was no one else around to jump in after him," Shadow muttered, his eyes closed.

"Aw, that's such as shame. Did you find the treasure?"

"Nah, but we had a blast," said Sonic, sheepishly. "Anyway, what were you, Amy and Wave doing? It didn't seem like you were looking for the treasure."

"Oh, nothing _too_ important." A smirk suddenly played at her lips. "You know, when I talked to Tails, he mentioned something about hearing strange noises and some sort of banging. Your room's pretty close to his. You two wouldn't happen to know about it would you?"

Shadow didn't seem fazed. But then again, that was Shadow for you. Sonic on the other hand, he pulled his towel up so that it covered his muzzle trying to hide his blush. Had they really been _that_ loud? "N-no. We didn't hear anything. You Shadow?"

"Not that I remember," he said quietly, thinking exactly what Sonic was thinking.

'_CRAP!'_

Rouge laughed out loud before pushing Shadow away from Sonic, which earn in a glare from Shadow before he closed his eyes again, and sitting in between them, placing an arm around their shoulders. "It's alright, guys. You guys don't have to hide your little secret from little old me. Not that I am old."

"What secret?" Sonic asked, a little too quickly.

"You know...about you guys and your little relationship."

"Wh—what relationship?"

"The jig is up Sonic, she knows," Shadow said, his eyes still closed. He opened his eyes and saw Sonic trying to avoid his gaze. His face seemed full of disappointment. He looked...ashamed?

"Aw, you two make such a cute couple," Rouge chuckled. "And don't you guys worry. I won't tell anyone you're secret. Well, unless you seriously piss me off for some reason, then I would tell someone." The bat-girl smirked once more before standing up and walking away. Shadow turned to Sonic.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked quietly. He was sure that Rouge had attracted a little attention, but she was speaking quietly so no one else could hear. The last thing he would want as for someone to try and listen in on their conversation, because before the two hedgehogs were together, or even what could be called as friends, all they would want to do is kill each other, Shadow in particular. And not once back then did he ever, and I mean _ever_, ask his counterpart if he was okay.

Sonic looked down at his feet, watching as a small crab climbed over his shoes. For a while he said nothing, and Shadow thought that he was never going to get an answer out of him. But then, Sonic sighed, closing his eyes. "We'll talk about it when we get back," he replied quietly, the towel still covering his muzzle.

Tails stood a short while away from the two hedgehogs. He could hear Cream telling Amy about the chao that the group had found. And when she had mentioned the part about Vector screaming, the crocodile instantly stated that it was because if he was scared, then the kids wouldn't and that was called reverse psychology. But Tails wasn't focusing on what the small group around him was saying. His gaze was fixed on his big brother who just as few moments ago was talking with Rouge. Something must have been said since Sonic seemed to be acting a little quieter than before she had come along. When Shadow stood up and headed over to the ocean, probably to be alone, Tails moved in on his brother. "Hi Sonic," he greeted. "How'd the hunt go?"

"Not to well, but it was fun," replied Sonic, turning to faze his brother who was now sat next to him. He faked a smile. "I don't think anyone found it."

The twin-tailed fox knew that Sonic's smile was fake, but he knew that he shouldn't question it. Although he did feel like questioning what had just happened between him and Shadow as well as what happened back when the treasure hunt was still on. "Hey, Sonic...can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can. You know that you can ask me anything."

Tails thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to ask his idol about what was going on between him and the hedgehog's rival. But just as he was about to start, Lady Vanilla was asking for everyone's attention. "I'll ask it later," he whispered before turning his attention to the eldest rabbit.

"Please everyone, I need your attention," Lady Vanilla asked politely. When everyone was quiet, she continued. "I would just like say well done to all of you for trying your best to try and find the treasure. I am happy to say that it was found by someone."

Everyone glanced at one another, all wondering who had found the treasure. "Hello again everyone!" said a _very_ familiar green hedgehog.

"MANIE!?"

- - -

"Manie, what are you doing here? I thought you were going home!" Sonic questioned his sibling. He, Manie and Shadow were all in the hedgehog's room. Sonic sat on the chair next to the small desk while Shadow stood next to him, a can of beer in his hand. Hey, he was over fifty. The third hedgehog, Manie, was sat on the bed with her hands clasped together on her lap.

"But I couldn't resist coming back! It just too much fun!" replied the ex-male hedgehog. A blush crept up on her face. "And I wanted to see Shadow again."

"Didn't I already get it through your head that I don't like you?" said hedgehog muttered, before taking a sip from his beer.

"And didn't I tell _you_ not to drink?" Sonic said, frowning at Shadow. "You remember what happened last time, don't you? I was sore for a month!"

"Ooh! What happened? Give my all the details, little brother!" Manie said, smiling.

"You're just jealous because I'm older than you are," Shadow stated to his lover, prodding him in the forehead.

Manie looked at the two confused. "Um, Shadow?" Said hedgehog turned to her. "Aren't you and Sonic the same age?"

"It's rather complicated. I was actually put into a sleep-like coma for about fifty years and woke up a few years ago. So if you add those years on to how old I was when I was put to sleep I'm over fifty years of age. But I didn't age during that time so technically I am around Sonic's age."

Manie stared at him. "But if you're older than him, than doesn't that make you a pedophile?"

A deep red blush spread across Shadow's muzzle as Sonic began laughing uncontrollably. "N—no! It does not. Like I said just a moment ago, I didn't age during that time so I'm still Sonic's age!"

"Oops. My mistake."

"But Manie, did you phone home to tell mother where you are?" Sonic asked, suddenly seeming serious.

"So, you're done laughing I see," Shadow pointed out.

"Of course I phoned home. Mother said that I'm allowed to stay hear for as long as you and your friends are. Isn't this gonna be fun?" squealed Manie. Sonic could've sworn that he heard Shadow muttering about how fun it wasn't going to be.

Sonic closed his eyes, putting on a thoughtful face. "So if you're staying, then that means we're gonna need a room for ya...I'll talk to Cream. I think there's a spare bed in her room. It was supposed to be for her mother to sleep in but for some reason she sleeps in a different room."

"Probably that time of the month," Shadow snickered.

"Thank you so much, my dear brother," Manie thanked, not hearing what Shadow had just said.

Sonic got up and started heading to the door but stopped when Shadow said, "Hurry back. I need to talk to you about something." Sonic simply nodded and lead his brother, sister, whatever you wanna call Manie now down the stairs to Cream's room. He explained the situation to her and she happily let Manie in. Now that that was sorted, he needed to sort things out with Shadow. Just as he was about to head back up the stairs a voice stopped him.

"I saw you." It was Tails. He stood leaning against the wall with his arms and tails crossed, his eyes were only half open as he looked at the ground.

"What do you mean lil' bro?"

"On the beach. I saw you and Shadow together...kissing."

Sonic panicked for a second, but then calmly said, "What are you talking about, Tails? Is this what you were going on about on the beach before we came back?"

"Please Sonic, don't lie to me!" Tails snapped. He sighed. "It's okay, you know. If you and Shadow really are going out, then I'm happy for you."

"You—you are?"

"Of course! You're my big brother!" The twin-tailed fox smiled up at Sonic. "It doesn't matter to me whether you're straight, gay, or bisexual. I'll still respect you no matter what."

Sonic smiled, ruffling his brother's bangs. "Thanks kid. I kinda needed that. I'll se you in the morning."

"Hold on a minute Sonic! I wanna ask you something. Do you remember that time I asked you how you know if you're in love with someone?"

"Yeah I remember. You want to know if I was speaking from experience, right?" Tails nodded. "I guess I was. Well, goodnight."

"'night Sonic."

The azure hedgehog smiled to himself as he walked up the stairs. Knowing that Tails was fine with his sexuality made him feel a lot better. When he entered the room he shared with Shadow, he saw his black and red lover standing by the window. He quietly shut the door, locking it before creeping over to Shadow and wrapping his arms around Shadow's left arm, leaning forward a bit and leaning his head against Shadow. "'Evening, pooch," he said softly, closing his eyes.

"For the last time, please stop calling me 'pooch', _Sonikku_," replied Shadow teasingly.

Sonic only pouted then unwrapped his arms and asked, "What did you want to talk to me about anyway?"

Shadow stared into Sonic's innocent emerald green eyes. He _was_ hoping that he could try to cheer his lover up, since he had looked down ever since the beach incident with Rouge. But it seemed as though someone had already beat him to it. "It's nothing," he sighed, moving over to the bed. "But you seem happier than before? Did I miss something?"

Sonic hesitated before replying, "Tails knows about us."

"You told the kid?"

"No, he sort of saw us making out on the beach. But he's cool with it, though."

"So that's three people who know. Don't you think it's about time we let the others know—"

"NO!"

Shadow had been cut off mid sentence. He walked back over to his azure colored mate, wrapping his arms around the youth's waist and pulling him closer. "I was only suggesting. It's okay if you don't want anyone else to know. But wouldn't it be easier to take it now instead of later on in life?"

"Not right now. I can't," Sonic said, resting his head on Shadow's chest on fumbling the patch of white fur with his fingers.

"Why not?" Shadow asked softly, in a way that you wouldn't expect someone such as Shadow to speak ever in his life.

"Because everyone's asleep right now."

Shadow sweat-dropped. Sometimes Sonic could be so...what's the word...ah yes! Simple. Or is it stupid? Or maybe both. "Come on, let's go to bed." Shadow then captured Sonic in a soft, loving kiss. "We'll talk more in the morning." Sonic simply nodded before the two headed off to bed.

- - -

**Whoopee!!!! That was really really long chapter!!!!!**

**Sonic: I am **_**not**_** stupid!**

**Who controls you in this fic?**

**Sonic: You do.**

**Correct! Hey, where's Shadow?**

**Sonic: He's with his precious little chao. Ever since that, that **_**thing**_** came along, he's always busy with **_**it**_**! **

**Shadow: Actually I was in the bathroom.**

**Sonic:...So you're not busy with that chao anymore?**

**Shadow: It left me for Rouge. Apparently enormous breast of doom are a chao's favorite toy.**

**Awww, poor Shadow. Poor, poor, poor, Shadow...**

**Shadow: It's your fault for breeding that chao in the first place! I'll kill you!!!!**

**Yikes! While I run from Shadow, please leave me your reviews on this chapter! Thanks! OW! Stop shooting me with that gun! Sonic! Control your boyfriend! OW!**


	7. Phase VII

**Sonic: Hi guys!!!!**

**Shadow: Where's the authoress?**

**Sonic: She's too busy packing to go to Manchester so she asked me to take her place. **

**Shadow: Seriously, you? That has got to be the biggest mistake in her life. **

**Sonic: The biggest mistake in her life was her last love.**

**Shadow: And just how do you know that!?**

**Sonic: Girl talks. You should try it sometimes. **

**Shadow: I'm not a girl and neither are you.**

**Sonic: (dramatically) It does not matter what you look like on the outside. It's what you are on the inside that counts.**

**Shadow, Disclaimer: If Tsukimomo actually owned the Sonic the Hedgehog games and everything else to do with it I would shoot her and take over the company myself. But since she doesn't I can't.**

- - -

Phase VII: Hot Springs & Camping!

"Oh Shadow, my darling! Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

At this current moment in time, Shadow seriously wished he had a gun, because if he had to put up with having the life squeezed out of him by Sonic's brother/sister's death-crushing-hug, he would come back from the dead and rip her head off. A sudden little scenario came to Shadow's mind. One where he suddenly pulled a gun out of nowhere and shot Manie's brains out. That would save him from the death-crushing-hug. But things never turned out to be one of those 'happily ever after' things because in that scenario, Sonic just happened to see the whole thing and would most likely kill him for shooting his sister-thing.

"Well? Have I?" Manie asked, still crushing Shadow. The ebony hedgehog hadn't slept that well the night before, and he eventually gave up on waiting for Sonic to wake and headed downstairs only to be attacked by Manie as soon as he walked into the dining hall.

Knuckles, who was sat at little away from where Shadow was currently being killed, snickered and whispered to Vector, "Those two seem close, don't you think?"

The reptile, in return, snickered also and whispered something inaudible that caused both animals to snicker some more.

"Do you think Manie and Amy are related?" Cream inquired who was sat next to Tails with Cheese sat on the table eating...cheese...

"What makes you ask that?" asked Tails, asking himself inwardly if Manie knew about Shadow and his relationship with his brother.

The rabbit looked up at Tails, smiling. "The way Manie always hugs and follows Shadow and saying that she loves him is just like Amy would with Sonic."

Tails sweat-dropped. "That's true."

"What was that!?" Manie said suddenly, glaring daggers at the pair.

"N—n—no—NOTHING!!!!" Tails cried, his fur sticking up on its ends.

"That's just what I thought," the now female hedgehog said, finally letting go of Shadow, who inhaled deeply, and sat down next to the echidna. "Hi!" she said, seeming cheerful despite the fact that she just gave a death threatening glare at the young fox.

"Uh...hi?" replied Knuckles, having found slight fear about Sonic's sibling. He saw out of the corner of his eye Shadow sitting down opposite to the emerald hedgehog. As soon as he did, the girl's attention immediately switched from him to the ebony hedgehog.

"Shadow, honey? Have you seen my dear sibling?"

"He was asleep when I left," replied Shadow, not looking at Manie. _'Why the heck does she insist on acting the same way to me as the stupid pink girl does to Sonic?'_

"Well, let's go wake him up!" Manie stood from her seat and walked to where Shadow sat, pulling him up and dragging him out of the room with her. When the two had begun walking up the stairs, she let go of his hand. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For acting the way I did. You and Sonic really want to keep this secret?" Shadow nodded. "Then if I keep clinging to you then nobody will suspect a thing. By the way, which one of you was it that wanted to keep it secret?"

"Him."

"I had a feeling it was. It's quite scary when your sexuality is different from others. You're afraid of what might happen if everyone were to find out, you know? To be honest, I don't see why guys make such a fuss out of other guys being gay. It's just natural. That was another reason why I changed. If I started hitting on a guy as Manic, then the guy would probably be pretty disgusted. It's like a good friend of mine said, 'If God didn't want men to be gay then why he but their sensitive spot in their ass?' I'm rambling aren't I?"

"Yes."

In fact, Manie had been rambling for so long that they were at the bedroom. The door was shut, but they could hear moans from inside.

"He isn't cheating on you, is he!?" Manie gasped.

"He better damn not!" replied Shadow, gritting his teeth and opening the door. The two hedgehogs walked in and looked around. They spotted Sonic tossing and turning in bed; a pained looked on his face. Shadow frowned. "I think you should leave."

"Huh, how come?"

"This has happened once before. The last time I woke him up whilst he was like this he attacked me before realizing that he wasn't dreaming anymore and that it was _me_ who he had just attacked."

Manie looked at her brother worriedly before nodding and exiting the room. Shadow slowly approached Sonic who was calling out in his sleep and had tears running down his face. The black and red streaked hedgehog slowly placed his hands on Sonic's shoulder before shaking him violently. Sonic cried out, his eyes shooting wide open with tears still falling from them and sitting upright on the bed. Shadow instantly wrapped his arms around Sonic as the latter gasped for air. The two stayed like this until Sonic's breathing returned back to normal. Shadow placed a hand on Sonic's cheek, lifting his head slowly so that the hedgehog was forced to look at him.

"Bad dream?" he asked, softly.

Sonic averted his eyes, trying desperately not to look Shadow in the eye. "It was...nothing," he replied. Another tear fell from his eyes and slowly fell on the hand that Shadow had placed on the azure hedgehog's cheek.

"I'm not buying it. It's not like _you_ to cry so easily. Usually you're cocky, arrogant and damn right stubborn. Now you'rejust stubborn. So why was it that you were a complete cry baby back on the beach?"

Sonic knew that Shadow's words weren't supposed to hurt him. Being a badass was how Shadow showed he cared. He sighed and decided that it was best to answer. "When I...When I was younger, I had another sibling. His name was Skythe. Skythe was two years older than me and always treated me and my sis and bro equally. He was so kind; the definition of kind. Our family decided to go to the beach one day, and Skythe promised he'd teach me how to swim. He showed me a couple a things although I never really managed to get the hang of them. But despite of that, everything was so—so wonderful. Well...it was until..." Sonic paused, staring at a corner of the room.

Shadow shifted from in front of Sonic to besides him. "Until what?" he questioned, seeming interested in the other hedgehog's story.

"Whilst we were playing, a huge tidal wave appeared out of nowhere. And I _mean_ out of no where. It was so strong that it managed to pull Skythe and me out to sea. I was slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I thought I was going to die. But then Skythe dived down and pulled me back up to the surface. The shore was so far away, and Skythe was already tired from trying to fight against the tidal wave and swim to get me, he couldn't possibly be able to swim back to shore. So we both floated at the surface for a while, calling out for our mother but she was too far away to hear us. There was a low growl sound behind us, and when we looked, there was a large shadow under the water. A giant squid suddenly appeared, and it looked mean. My brother grabbed a hold of me and tried swimming away, but he was too tired and it slowed him down. The squid grabbed us both with one of its tentacles and began swinging us around. It then threw us in the water pretty hard. Skythe was just about to grab me to try and surface again when a tentacle lashed out at me and it was wrapped around something sharp. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for impact. But it never came. When I opened one of my eyes to see what had happened, I was in my brother's arms. I was so relieved. But he was smiling at me. Not the cheerful way, but the sad way. And when I looked, I saw blood slowly spreading through the water. The blood was from him. He took the blow instead of me. I then noticed the squid sinking, looking as if it had been injured. Then someone dived into the water and began swimming towards us. The last thing I remember before blacking out was my brother's smiling face. I woke up in hospital a week later. Skythe didn't make it."

The blue hedgehog stopped speaking; not wanting to tell the other about the hurtful things that his family said to him, screaming at him that it was his fault that Skythe had died. It was because of them that he felt more that it was his fault than he already did. Shadow sat with his eyes closed. In all of his life he would never had guessed that _that _was why Sonic was so afraid of water. Being a hero really did have its downsides. And not to mention that the press goes crazy ever time you make a mistake. Maybe he could try and persuade Sonic to quite his hero work and just settle down.

The two sat in silence for a while, both thinking about the story that had just been told. Shadow instantly realized that the reason his lover cried was not because he was afraid of the water itself, but because he didn't want someone to try and save him again and end up just like his brother. After a few more minutes of silence, one of the two spoke up.

"We should go downstairs," the ebony hedgehog said, placing his hand atop of Sonic's. "When I first came up here, that annoying thing you call your sister was with me. She looked worried when she saw you wincing in your sleep."

Sonic nodded, and together, they headed to the dining room.

- - -

For the first time in the past few days, Sonic had managed to keep everything he ate the night before down. But then again, he didn't eat that much. But he was happy. He sat next to Espio, who was cutting his slices of toast in the shape of shurikens, with a plate of pancakes in front of him. Shadow had disappeared after five minutes of eating. Much to Sonic's displeasure, Amy was sat on the other side of him, staring at him dreamily. Sonic looked at her, smiling nervously. "Um...Amy?" he said.

"Yes? What is it?" she replied, twirling one of her neatly combed quills. Since they weren't all that sharp they didn't cut her.

"Could I, er....eat without you staring at me?"

Amy smiled and said, "Sure!" before turning in the opposite direction only to pull out a mirror and stare at Sonic's reflection instead. The blue hedgehog sighed, not noticing Charmy buzzing past behind and Vector chasing him. The little bumblebee had a pair of boxers in his hands.

"Hey look everybody!" he chirped, flying up close to the ceiling with the table directly underneath. "It's Vector's underwear!"

Everyone who was sat at the table laughed as Vector's face turned red. "Gimme those!" he barked, jumping up on the table and trying to catch Charmy. As the reptile began sliding across the table, those who wanted to eat their food quickly pulled it away and ate with it on their laps. Espio had had enough and threw one of his toast shurikens at Charmy. It hit him square in the face, and within seconds he burst out crying. While he was distracted, Vector snatched his underwear back off of him and slid off the table.

Sonic sighed and placed his plate on the table before leaving the room. "Where are you going, Sonic?" Amy asked, clinging to her obsession's arm.

"I _was_ going to take a shower but I can't if you're with me," he replied flatly. The pink girl blinked before giggling and letting go and running back into the dining room. He headed for the lobby as he felt like taking the elevator that day. As he walked there, he ignored Jet's shouts about racing him. As the elevator doors opened, he saw none other than Shadow. "I was wondering where you had gone." He looked and saw that his ebony lover had two towels in his hands. "Going somewhere?"

"Yes we are," Shadow replied, grabbing Sonic's wrist with his free hand and speeding off out of the hotel. Sonic smiled, wondering where Shadow was taking, and why he was in such a hurry. Within a few minutes, the two were at the other side of the island, the part where tourists didn't often go. Shadow stopped by a small hot spring that looked as though it hadn't been touched for a very long time. Shadow, now holding Sonic's hand, could feel the blue speedster tensing up. He chuckled lightly before placing the two towels down and taking off his shoes and gloves, telling Sonic to do the same. He then hopped into the water causing Sonic stepped back as some of it splashed out at him.

Shadow rested one of his arms on the ground next to the hot spring whilst he stretched his other one out for Sonic to take. Sonic frowned at him. The water reached just above the hedgehog's waist, but he couldn't tell if that was because Shadow was using his arm to make the water look shallow or if that was really how deep it was.

"It's not deep," the ebony hedgehog said. When he saw Sonic was still frowning at him he sighed and rested his arm in front of his other one. "Well I can see that you no longer trust me. Shame. Maybe I can date Manie instead."

Sonic growled before jumping in the hot spring next to Shadow, earning a chuckled from the ebony hedgehog. "I guess I'll just have to date Amy then," Sonic said, smirking.

"You don't even like her."

"_You_ don't even like Manie!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

Shadow finished their little argument by placing his lips on Sonic, kissing him hungrily and wrapping his arms around the azure hedgehog's waist. Sonic complied by wrapping his arms around Shadow's neck, kissing him back just as equally. Sonic leant back, the two of them ignoring the fact that they were falling back (or forewords in Shadow's case) into the water and simply continued with their little session under the warm water.

- - -

The sun was right above the island, meaning that it must be around noon. The two hedgehogs were still in the hot spring. Sonic rested his head on Shadow's chest, playing with the white tuff of fur. He didn't know why, but he like playing with it. When he had told Shadow this, the black and red hedgehog simply shook his head and chuckled softly.

"That was good," Sonic said softly. "But I've had better."

"And _when_ was that!?" Shadow said, pretending to sound offended.

"First times are always better. Even though you kind of forced yourself on me. We were only a week into our relationship!"

"Hey, I didn't hear you complain on the night!"

Sonic laughed out loud. "That's true," he muttered, closing his eyes. "God I wish we could be like this all the time."

"Talking about the sex we had?"

"No! I mean just sitting here like this. It's comforting. Plus I can tell when you either need a bath or used my shampoo."

"Oh thanks." Shadow pulled at Sonic's quills playfully, causing the azure hedgehog to grab his wrists to try and get him off, not realizing how revealing that looked. But when he did, he frowned.

"Not again! I think this hot spring has had enough excitement for one day!"

"Okay, okay. But I think we should go back now. One, its near noon, maybe past, and two, I passed Lady Vanilla when I went up to get the towels. She said that we're all camping on the beach tonight and that the tents we have to share are the same as the rooms."

Sonic climbed out of the hot spring and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around him to try and warm himself back up since his wet body was exposed to the cool air. Shadow followed, grabbing his own towel. Sonic frowned. How come Shadow's towel looked larger than his? His question was answered when Shadow came over to him and wrapped it around both of their bodies.

"What was the point of bringing two towels when one would be enough?" Sonic asked.

"To keep us warmer," the other replied simply then proceeding to peck Sonic on the lips. Sonic was just about to repeat his lover's actions when his ears perked up at the sound of a twig snapping. Both hedgehogs looked to see Rouge, the tips of her fingers over her mouth.

"Am I interrupting anything?" she asked with false innocence.

Both hedgehogs fell back, Shadow being the first to get back on his feet. He scowled at Rouge. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Well, Lady Vanilla wanted to see Sonic so that he knew about the camp out on the beach. So I decided to go look for him, and what did I find? A cute couple about to express their love."

Sonic rubbed his noggin. "Actually we already—"

"That's _not_ what we were doing," Shadow butted in, hitting Sonic on the head.

Rouge simply shrugged. "Well, I only wanted you to know that everyone's wondering where you are so you better get back. I've gotta go now, myself. Ta-ta, boys." The bat-girl winked at the two hedgehogs before flying off into the distance.

"I suppose we should go back," Sonic said after Rouge disappeared from view.

"You're not _actually_ going to do what she said, are you?" asked Shadow.

"It's not that. It's just that everybody's wondering where I am. Don't want any suspicions to rise up, do we?"

Shadow sighed and nodded.

- - -

"Soooonic! Where were you? You said you were going for a quick shower and you didn't come back!" a certain pink hedgehog whined when she spotted Sonic the Hedgehog walking down the corridor with a towel draped over his shoulder.

"Sorry, Amy. But I overheard a couple talking about a hot spring on the other side of the island. They said it sounded really nice and relaxing. And they also said that if two people go in it together than their destinies intertwine, but that's not really important to me at the moment," Sonic quickly lied but instantly regretted it when he saw the look on Amy's face.

"Aw, Sonic, why didn't you take me with you? If you go to that hot spring alone then it won't work, will it?"

Sonic quickly came up with an excuse. "I—I haven't been too well lately." Well that wasn't really a made up excuse, but Sonic chose to stick with it.

"You're sick!? Oh dear! You should go straight to bed. I'll tell everyone that we won't be able to come to the campout tonight."

"It's not that bad, Amy, really. And what do you mean 'we'?"

The rose hedgehog smiled. "Well you need someone to look after you, don't you?"

Sonic looked at her and sighed. "Listen, Amy. I'll be fine. I'll just get a bit of sleep before we head out to boost my energy, 'kay?"

"Are you sure?" Sonic nodded before he continued heading to his room. That was close. If she found out that he was with Shadow in that hot spring after telling her that lie about destinies she would not be a happy hog. If he were to be honest, Sonic would nearly throw up at the thought of her being his girlfriend. She just wasn't his type. And all the clinging and the whining and all of those love confessions just seemed like a real turn-off.

But despite of that, Sonic still treated her like a sister. He did like her. Just not in the way that she liked him. If all of his friends were to know about him and Shadow, Amy's reaction would probably worry him the most. He didn't want to break her heart. Especially since Shadow was a guy.

The azure hedgehog sighed as he entered his room, throwing the towel on the floor and falling on the bed on his stomach. He didn't know what it was, but something really made the position he was in really uncomfortable. He rolled over onto his back and stared into the en suit bathroom. He called hear someone rattling something around. It sounded like something in a small jar. Sonic decided to try and ignore the sound and closed his eyes. He had been really tired lately and it wasn't like him. He didn't really like it either. Every time he yawned his eyes automatically squeezed tighter and his body would for a short moment feel limp. But that wasn't the only thing that bothered. Sometimes he would wake up early in the morning and when he tried to fall asleep, his body would fall into sleep paralysis. He would be awake, but his body would not. He wasn't able to open his eyes to see everything around him, he couldn't open his mouth to try and call out for someone to snap him out of it, and he wasn't able to return his breathing to how it should be when he's awake.

Sonic let out one of the yawns that were just described. When he opened his eyes, he saw Shadow looking through the drawers. The azure hedgehog sluggishly slipped off the bed and walked over to him and gave him a curious look. Shadow, feeling the other's gaze stated, "I'm looking for something."

"I can see that," Sonic replied quietly, letting out yet another yawn. "Just don't be noisy, I'm gonna get some shuteye."

Shadow watched as Sonic wobbled over to the bed and lay down on the bed, his back facing Shadow. The ebony hedgehog had been worrying about his love lately. He seemed so tired and drained. The reason for Shadow's lack of sleep the night before was because he forced himself to stay awake so that he could watch over Sonic. At times he thought he saw a look of panic on the hedgehog's face as he slept. But it would soon return back to a peaceful looking expression. And then there was all of the throwing up he had been doing. Sonic was sick and he knew it. During their stay, Sonic had woken up during the night and when he saw Shadow was awake, he would say that his stomach hurt or that he felt sick. But whenever Shadow brought up about seeing a doctor, Sonic simply said that it was just a phase and that it would pass.

The black and red hedgehog sighed, looking back at the drawers. He pulled out a blanket that looked large enough for two and folded up, placing it next to him. He walked over to the bed and pulled out two pillows that weren't near Sonic before walking back over to where the blanket lay and placed them on top of it. He gave another glance at Sonic, who seemed to be flat out. He then picked up the blanket and pillows and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and locking it with his key. Sonic would be able to unlock from the inside since it was one of those doors that only needed a keyhole on one side.

He walked downstairs to the lobby where a few of the gang were stood chatting, a blanket and pillow in their hands. By the walls were tents that were neatly folded, each one had a name tag on them. Shadow looked at them until he found the one for him and Sonic, placing the blanket and pillow inside of it.

"One blanket?" a familiar voice asked from behind Shadow. The ebony hedgehog gritted his teeth.

"Haven't you already annoyed me enough for the day?" he asked, turning around and looking straight at Rouge. She stood with her hands on her hips and smirk on her face.

"Not yet. But even though you two are sharing a blanket, I think you should bring a second one, it can get cold on the beach at night."

Shadow glared at Rouge before walking back upstairs to his room. When he reached his destination, the door was wide open and when he peered inside, Sonic was no longer on the bed. Or anyway in the room to be precise. He sighed, walking in and closing the door behind him. He had a feeling that the rest of that day would seem like centuries. He grunted, sitting down on the bed and taking his shoes off before resting on the bed with his hands behind his head. He lay there for a while until he heard the door open and close. He looked up to see Sonic placing three plates of chilidogs on the desk that seemed to have white cream on them and some twisted bread that looked mingled.

"What is _that_?" Shadow asked, sitting up. Sonic looked over to him and smiled.

"The chilidogs are sweets," he replied quickly. "Usually I prefer real ones that have been cooked, but today I'm settling for cake ones. The cream is supposed to be the mustard."

"And the bread?"

"Yum-Yums!"

"What?"

"It's a doughnut that is stretched and coated in sugar," Sonic explained, taking one and taking a bite out of it. "Sweet. You want one?"

"Not really." Despite his answer Sonic stuffed one in his mouth. "How much sugar is on these?" he asked after swallowing it.

"No clue. Want another?"

"No! And I thought you were tired!"

"And hungry. Wanna try the chilidog?"

"No. All that sugar is bad for you. First of all, it will give you a small energy boost. Then after that you'll feel twice as drowsy as before. Then your teeth will start to rot away. _Then_ you'll get fat."

Sonic gasped. "I don't wanna be fat!"

Shadow raised an eyebrow at Sonic's sudden change in mood. "Then stop eating."

"Completely? I don't wanna be anorexic either."

"I mean the sweets. Just stop eating so many of them." Shadow sighed. _'At least he isn't adding spices to them.'_

"I wonder what the Yum-Yums would taste like if they had spices on them."

'_I spoke too soon!'_

- - -

The moon was high in the sky, shining brightly down on the resort. Its light reflected off of the ocean, creating white diamonds that danced gracefully with every move the ocean made. At the top of the beach was a wall made out of stone that stopped the ocean when the tide came in. behind the stones was a patch of sand that was barely touched by water. Also behind these rocks was the gang, all of them talking or laughing while toasting marshmallows in a small campfire. Tents were pitched further away from the fire to ensure that they didn't catch alight.

Knuckles suddenly pulled out a flashlight and shined it from underneath his face. "Hey everyone, who's up for a ghost story?" he asked.

"If it's one _you_ made up then no, I don't," replied Rouge, smirking at the echidna who frowned at her.

"But Cheese and I don't want to hear I ghost story," Cream said, looking quite sleepy.

"Well why don't the two of us go to bed? I'm quite tired actually," Manie suggested to the rabbit. Cream nodded and the two of them retired to their tent.

Left sat around the campfire was now Knuckles, Espio, Jet, Rouge, Shadow and Sonic. Everyone else had decided to go to sleep earlier. Rouge folded her arms. "Well? Aren't you going to tell us your _scary_ ghost story?" she asked, emphasizing the word 'scary'.

"I was about to but before I could you spoke!" barked Knuckles.

"Just tell us the goddamn story!"

"Alright, alright. Now then, it was the year...well I forgot the year but that doesn't matter. Michael Mayor stood in front of the grave that belonged to his good friend, Dominic Kirkwood. The two had been friends since birth. But despite of that, Dominic always found ways to make fun of Michael. But Michael but that aside, thinking that it was just jokingly. But all that changed the day he got hit by a car."

Rouge made a ghostly 'wooing' noise before saying, "He got hit by a _car_!!!"

"Just let me finish! As Michael turned to leave the grave, he thought he heard his old friend calling out his name the way he did whenever he was copying his grandma. _'Michael!'_ the voice said, ending with a snicker. But as Michael turned to where the voice came from...no one was there..."

Everyone stared at Knuckles, a blank look on their faces. "You just made that up in less than a minute just so everyone would listen to you for once, didn't you," Sonic said, smirking.

"Well I'd like to hear _you're_ ghost story then!"

"Gladly. And I ensure you that this is my greatest ghost story ever."

"So you made it up?" Espio asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well...yeah I did. But it's _way_ better than Knuckle's."

"Wait, Sonic!" the red echidna suddenly cried. He then handed Sonic the flashlight. "You need this to make it seem spookier."

Sonic placed the flashlight beneath his chin and smiled darkly. "My story takes place at a boarding school for the gifted. Candy, one of the smartest students in the school, was looking at headlines of the school paper. _'Murderer Strikes Again'_. The whole school was in shock about the recent deaths of children all around the school. Strangely enough, all of these children were girls who all had boyfriends who claimed they couldn't remember what they were doing on the night of the murder.

"Candy put the paper down on the table next to her bed when she heard a loud knock come from the door. When the person entered the room, it was her boyfriend, Jock. The two had decided to go for a midnight stroll in the gardens of the school. The two walked, holding hands and chatting quietly. Candy suddenly changed the discussion to the murders that had been happening. Jock looked at her, his eyes glazed over and told her that she no longer needed to be worried about the murders. Candy was about to ask what he meant when she felt a sting in her stomach. She looked down. Blood was slowly falling to the ground. There was a knife in her stomach. Her boyfriend was holding the knife.

"The next morning, Candy was found dead in the school gardens. Everyone who knew her closely was questioned about where they were the night before. When it came to Jock, his exact words were... _'I can't remember what happened last night.'_

"That night, up in a room on the top floor, a girl the same age of Candy sat staring out of the window. The door to her room suddenly opened. When the girl looked, she saw her boyfriend, a tall man who was about two years older than her. Glazed over eyes were all that the girl saw before her world went black...for good..."

Everyone stared at Sonic, a freaked out look on their face. "Come on, my story wasn't _that_ scary, was it?" the azure hedgehog asked.

Jet shook his head. "It's not that. It's just, with that flashlight it kinda makes you look...look like a demon."

Sonic burst out laughing, handing the flashlight back to Knuckles. "You guys are _so_ easy to scare."

"Says the person who once pissed himself when a chao landed on him in the forest," said Rouge, laughing.

"Wha!? I never did that!"

"_Sure_ you didn't."

- - -

By **01:00am**, everyone was sound asleep in their tents. All except for one. He couldn't help but admit that he was a little scared. It wasn't the stories, oh no. It was something rather odd that bothered him. "Something I ate," he mumbled to himself before pulling one of the blankets above his head and falling asleep.

- - -

**Woohoo! Another one is written so another can begin. And I gave Sonic some background!**

**Shadow: Aren't you supposed to be packing?**

**. . . GOTTA PACK GOTTA PACK GOTTA PACK GOTTA PACK!!!!!!!**

**Sonic: BYE TSUKI!!!!**

**Shadow: Those ghost stories were shit. And what the heck is sleep paralysis?**

**Sonic: It's when you are awake but your body isn't. So you could try to move your arm but find that you can't. But what really scares you is when you can hear your blood pressure thumping in your head, but you can't so anything to stop it because you're paralyzed. Tsuki gets it a lot. **

**Shadow: And just how do you know?**

**Sonic: Girl talk!**

**Shadow: Are you gender confused or something?**

**Sonic: May—be...**

**Shadow:...You need help. Serious help.**

**Sonic: Aw, Shadow that's harsh! Well anyway, Please review so that when the authoress gets better she can have lots of happy review from you!**

**Shadow: Gender confused.**

**Sonic: Am not!**


	8. Phase VIII

**Hi everyone! So sorry that this took a while, its just that it was so hard to write. Sonic and Shadow aren't here today because Sonic is ill and Shadow is looking after him (Awww)**

- - -

Phase VIII:

Shadow awoke pretty early the next morning. At least he had managed to get a decent night sleep. He stretched and rolled over, expecting to see the azure hedgehog he cared for so much. He frowned when he found an empty space. Why wasn't Sonic in bed? Although the sun was up it wasn't time to get up. So where could he be?

The ebony hedgehog climbed out of the tent and looked around. His ears pricked up as he heard a familiar voice coming from behind the large rocks. Although he knew the voice, he cautiously walked to where the rocks ended and peeked round. He spotted Sonic sat and the sand, his back leaning against the rocks with a cellphone placed against his ear.

- - -

He had only got about three hours worth of sleep that night. Sonic rolled over so that his back was facing Shadow and yawned. He was extremely tired, but no matter how much his body begged, his mind wouldn't let him fall back asleep. He was guessing that it was about **06:00am** by now as he had already been awake for two hours. He suddenly felt a hand slap him on the cheek. Frowning, Sonic turned around to look at Shadow who was sound asleep. Shadow always seemed to shuffle a lot in bed whether he was awake or asleep. Especially a lot when they were doing _that_.

Sonic laid back down, a thought suddenly coming into his mind. Ever since they had been together, most of their relationship included sex. Sure there were kisses, hugs, and dates, but out of them all sex overruled them. Was that all Shadow wanted from him? Was Shadow just using him as a sex toy?

The azure hedgehog shook his head, clearing the thoughts from his head. Since he couldn't sleep, Sonic decided to just listen to listen to his surrounding. (I do that a lot when I was at my friend's house. I remember at my last slumber party I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I just listened to my friends' noses whistling and someone snoring XD) He could hear Manie murmuring not to far away.

That was another thing that had been Sonic's mind lately. How to tell his mother that he was gay. Sonic frowned at that word. He hated it. Just because he was in love with Shadow didn't mean that he was gay. In most people's eyes it _would_ mean that. But since Sonic only found himself attracted to Shadow and no other guy or girl, he wasn't technically gay. And before he even met Shadow, he liked a good look at a cute or hot girl every once in a while, and gays _only_ like men.

He sighed, frustrated as a snore came from Shadow before he muttered something about Charlie going to Candy Mountain. He was tempted to throw his pillow at the ebony hedgehog but decided it best not to make too much noise in case everyone was woken up by the noise. Instead, he grabbed his cellphone and headed out of the tent. He breathed in the ocean air, feeling nauseous, before heading around the large rocks and sitting down on the sand, leaning his back against the rock wall. He opened his cellphone and pressed **3** on the key pad. Numbers **1**, **2** and **3 **were all speed dial. **1 **was Shadow, of course, **2** was Tails, incase he needed anything technical done whilst he was away somewhere, and **3** was his mother.

He and his mother hadn't spoken to each other in years. He blamed Eggman for that. The hedgehog thought it was a miracle that the oversized scientist hadn't shown up yet.

"_Hello?"_ came a voice from the other end of the phone.

Sonic sighed. "Hello, mother. It's Sonic."

- - -

As Shadow slowly approached the other hedgehog he could hear him constantly saying 'yes', 'no', and sometimes 'It's okay'. Whoever it was must know him pretty well to keep talking to him like that and not really giving him much time to reply.

"Look, everything's fine. I've just been feeling nauseous but I'm sure it will pass...I swear down on my life...Wait! I need to tell you something! .......No, it's nothing...never mind...okay...love you too...see ya."

Sonic sighed, closing his cellphone. His mother had begun rambling and asking him simple little questions over and over again like, 'Are you getting enough sleep?' or 'Are you eating properly?' and once she asked, 'Have you remembered to wash behind your ears?'. Mothers worry too much, especially when you haven't seen them for a _very_ long time.

The black and red streaked hedgehog was about to ask Sonic what he was doing when the latter's eyes opened wide before he faced the other way and began throwing up. Shadow sighed when the retching finally stopped. He bent down next to the azure one, catching him by surprise.

"Oh! Shadow! What're you doing out here? Isn't it a bit early?" Sonic asked, trying to hide the fact that he felt as sick as a person with a weak stomach would as they sped down on a rollercoaster.

"I was about to ask you the same question. But then you began throwing up...again..." replied Shadow, frowning at Sonic. "You _really_ need to see a doctor before this gets out of hand."

"I'm fine, there's nothing to worry about."

"I'm not asking, I'm telling you."

"Well why don't you back off!" Shadow was taken aback slightly at Sonic's sudden outburst, but remained calm. "When I say I fine, then I mean _I'm fine_! So quit acting as if I'm the freakin' sickest thing in the world!"

Sonic stood up and sped off to somewhere else on the beach. Shadow blinked in confusion. "What was that all about?" he muttered to himself before looking around. He _really_ needed to relive himself and soon or else he'd burst.

- - -

Sonic stomped along the beach, kicking a pebble to try and get rid of his anger. Although it didn't seem to be working. "Who the hell does Shadow think he is? Just 'cos he's the Ultimate Life Form, then that DOESN'T MEAN HE CAN TELL EVERYONE WHAT TO DO!!" He backed away a little as the sea lapped at his sneakers. He yelled, frustrated, before picking up the pebble and throwing out into the ocean. "THAT STUPID JERK! WHO THE HELL PUT _HIM_ IN CHARGE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP ANYWAY? He thinks he's the boss, he can do whatever he wants with me, and I'm just his little sex toy! IS THAT ALL I AM TO HIM!?"

"No, it's not."

Sonic spun around to see Shadow with his arms folded across his chest. "Oh yeah! Then why the hell is it that all you ever want to do is have sex! I should have suspected something from the very first time we did it. I didn't even get a say in it! If you really loved me then you would have asked if I felt ready or not. But did you do that? No! You just went and forced yourself on me! YOU USED ME FOR YOUR OWN SEXUAL NEEDS!"

"Shut up or else you're going to wake up the others!"

"Good! Then they can all know how much of a jerk you are!"

"And by doing that you'll also be telling everyone the thing you've been trying to hide from them. Which, by the way, you haven't been doing a very good job of!"

"Well maybe if I didn't have to deal with _you _treating me like a frreakin' PUSSY then maybe I would do a better job! People are right when they say love makes you weak."

"Even if you didn't have that to deal with then you'd still do a shit job!"

"Well I'd like to see _you_ try do a better job then me!"

"As far as everything goes, I haven't let the secret slip once."

"What about with Rouge?"

"_I_ did nothing! I stayed calm and pretended that there was nothing between us. You on the other hand blushed, started stuttering, and oh yes, gave the secret away! I don't really see what the big deal is. If they don't accept us then screw them! They can all rot in hell."

Sonic clenched his fists, glaring at Shadow with as much force as the other. "Well...if that's how you feel...then we're through!"

Shadow's eyes widened. "_What!?_" Had he just heard correctly?

"Are you deaf? I said, We. Are. Through!"

He had.

Sonic instantly sped off while Shadow stood frozen. At first he wasn't sure if the other had meant what he said. But as he began thinking about their relationship since the moment it started, he began to doubt that thought. Sonic was right, he didn't give him a choice. That made him feel guilty. Now that he thought about, he _never_ once asked if Sonic wanted to go through with it.

He sighed; trying to imagine what it would be like if it was him in that position. Where his boyfriend didn't really bother how he felt and forcing him into having sex. Was it true? Had he really used Sonic for his own sexual needs?

He bowed his head, ears flattened against his head as he began walking back to camp. No one else would be up yet, so maybe he could just lie in bed and think for a while.

- - -

The next time Shadow got out of the tent, he saw some of the others running around frantically. Rouge and Tails were both up in the air, looking down on the beach as if searching for something. The rogues were on their extreme gear, also seeming as though they were searching for something. Or someone.

"Shadow!" a famine yet masculine voice cried. Shadow sighed. What did _she_ want now? He frowned when a familiar emerald hedgehog approached him. "Shadow, have you seen my little brother?" Manie asked, obviously worried. "We can't find him anywhere!"

"You mean he hasn't come back yet?" Shadow asked. Manie shook her head then frowned.

"You know something, don't you?"

"I might do, but what is it to you?"

Manie's frowned deepened into a scowl. She then grabbed a tight hold on the ebony hedgehog's chest fur and shook him violently as she spoke. "LISTEN HEAR, YOU! SONIC IS MY LITTLE BROTHER AND IF YOU'VE DONE ANYTHING THAT RESULTED IN HIM GETTING HURT THEN YOU ARE _SO_ IN FOR IT!"

Knuckles suddenly ran over to the two hedgehogs and tried to pull Manie away. "Hey, calm down, Manie! I'm sure that if Shadow knew where Sonic was he would tell us!" he cried, finally managing to get Manie to release her grip.

The emerald hedgehog thought for a moment before saying, "Yeah, you're right. Perhaps you should go and search some more. Shadow and I will go and look for him together, okay?"

Knuckles sweatdropped. He didn't understand how this girl could go from extremely angry to soft and calm in a matter of seconds. He sighed and headed off in a different direction. When he was out of earshot, Manie turned to Shadow.

"Seriously, Shadow. I know that you know where he is," she said, frowning. "And you are going to tell me or else you _will_ suffer severe consequences."

Shadow continued to frown at her for a while before deciding it was best to answer. "I don't know where he is, but I do know why he ran off."

Manie put her hands on her hips and began tapping her foot impatiently, copying of how her brother used to act. "Well? I'm waaaaiting!"

"We had an argument about the secret. I told him that he was doing a shit job and that it was pointless keeping it a secret and if people didn't accept it then they could all rot in hell."

Shadow received a slap on the face by Manie, although it didn't really faze him. "You idiot! How could you say something like that! We better find him so you can apologize to him."

"I don't think I should."

"And why not!?"

"..."

"Oh forget, just come with me! It's not safe for a girl to be wondering around this early in the morning by herself."

Manie grabbed a hold of Shadow's hand and dragged him away with her.

- - -

It was now gone **5:00** in the afternoon and everyone was completely worried about their blue friend. No one had yet to find him and they were all exhausted. Earlier in the day when Manie and Shadow had past the spot where Sonic had thrown up, Manie suddenly ushered Shadow away, claiming that she needed to do something.

Now Shadow sat on the same large rock where he and Sonic were that time when Sonic fell in. He had been sat there for a very long time just thinking. Thinking about whether or not he should actually try to find Sonic. If he did, and Sonic was still angry about what happened that morning, he might start throwing a fit and scream more things about using him as a sex toy. Or there was that slight possibility that he would forgive Shadow for the way that he had treated him, but that was only a _slight_ possibility.

Shadow groaned, frustratingly and slapping a hand across his forehead. He knew that Sonic had been acting strange lately what with the sudden breakdown and all, but he never expected him to say those three words that he _never_ wanted to hear him say.

"_We. Are. Through!"_

Shadow sighed. Was it even a good idea to date the azure hedgehog in the first place? He knew that homosexuality could be frowned upon by many, and that Sonic would have a reputation to uphold, but because of that, this happened. Wait. Sonic _did_ have a reputation to a hold. If people found out about him and Shadow, then they would disown him as their hero. But if he kept it secret, then everyone would still love him. Was _that_ the true reason why Sonic didn't want anyone to know? He sighed in frustration and closed his eyes. Why was all of this so confusing?

- - -

Meanwhile, somewhere else, Manie was running about on the beach, her crystal blue eyes darting here and there. She desperately needed to find her younger brother, not because everyone was worried about why he had disappeared despite the fact that she too was worried, but she needed to find him for something else. She had heard that Sonic had been throwing regularly in the morning, and after a quick phone call with her mother suspicions began to rise. It wasn't until she had done a little test that she found out exactly why he had been like that.

"SONIC!" she cried out, hoping to get a reply but to no avail. She then spotted a familiar fox up in the sky. "Tails!"

Said fox looked down at the ground to see his hero's older sister staring up at him worriedly. He slowly hovered down in front of her. "What is it, Manie? Are you alright?"

"Tails, have you spotted my brother yet?"

Tails shook his head. "Not yet. But I'm not gonna give up looking. Why do you think he ran off anyway?"

"I don't know, but I'm guessing Shadow had something to do with it since he seemed hesitant to help look for him."

"You know about them being, you know..."

"Oh yeah, sure! I learnt on the first night I came here. But never mind that. I've gotta to. There's something important that I need to tell my brother! I'll catch you later Tails!" Manie called as she began running again. Tails watched her for a while before taking off into the air again.

Manie continued running for just over an hour, not caring how out of breath she was. She _needed_ to find her brother. If he did anything drastic then not only might he be hurting himself, but it could also hurt a small someone.

The emerald hedgehog suddenly tripped over her own feet and fell to the sandy ground. Tears suddenly began falling down her face. "Where are you Sonic?" she cried, clenching her fists. "Why did you run off? Don't you know how worried everyone is?" A hand was suddenly offered to the crying hedgehog. Manie looked up to see Shadow stood before her. She took the hand and was pulled up with easy force. "What are _you_ doing here? It's because of you that all of this happened in the first place!"

I know," Shadow replied simply. "That's why I'm here. I need to speak with Sonic."

"Well it would help if we could find him."

"What the hell are you doing here!?" an angry voice suddenly said. The two hedgehogs looked up to see Sonic. Manie squealed in delight before running over and hugging her brother.

"Sonic! Don't you _ever_ run off like that again. I was so worried. Everyone's been looking for you all day!" she cried. She then pulled back and looked into her brother's eyes, tears in her own. "Promise me you won't do anything like that again. Remember, I'm the oldest so I'm automatically classed as the one who is responsible for what happens to you and Sonia."

"I promise," the other hedgehog replied. He then turned to Shadow with hate filled eyes. "I'll repeat what I said before. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Look Sonic, we need to talk," Shadow stated, looking back at Sonic with just as much hate.

"Sonic, there's something that I need to tell you as well," Manie cut in.

"Not right now Manie," Sonic replied, seeming to ignore his sister. He turned his attention back to Shadow. "I'm listening."

"There's something I need to need to know. When you wanted to keep our love a secret, did you only do that so that you'd still have a load of adoring fans? So that you could still remain their _perfect_ hero? Or was it _really_ because you were worried about what your friends would think?"

Sonic's already deep frown depended. "How could you even think like that? Of course I was worried about my friends, you bastard!"

"Sonic," Manie tried to but in again, only to once again be ignored.

"Yeah, well, it would seem just like you to do that? So keeping a reputation was more important than our love?" Shadow spat.

"Sonic!"

Sonic gritted his teeth. "Well that's just as worse as you using me for your own sexual desires!"

"Sonic, please!"

"Why do you even care, Shadow? I thought that I got it through your head earlier!"

"Sonic!"

"We are through!"

An eerie silence suddenly filled the area. A cool sea breeze past by, ruffling the hedgehogs' quills. Manie looked from one male to the other, a shocked expression on her face. "You mean you're...not together?" she asked cautiously.

Sonic nodded. "Why don't you just go home, Shadow? The only one who ever paid any attention to you was me. But since that's not gonna happen anymore, just go crawl back to your hole!"

"Sonic! How could you say that? Shadow loves you for who you are, not because he wants to satisfy himself. And I know that despite the arguing that you have been doing he still loves you. And I know that you do too! You're just ignoring it because you're angry at him! Can't you forgive him and forget that all of this ever happened? Please?"

Sonic was silent as he thought about his sister's words. Shadow on the other hand closed his eyes and turned around. "It's obvious that's not going to happen. I know when I'm not wanted. See ya," the ebony hedgehog said as he began walking away.

"Wait! There's something that you both need to know!" Manie cried, causing Shadow to stop in his tracks.

"Something both of us?" Sonic blinked in confusion. "Can't that wait until later? I need to make sure that Shadow doesn't confuse any of my things with his when he packs."

"But Sonic—"

"No Manie, he's right," Shadow said, walking away again. Manie grabbed Sonic's hand as the other began walking back to the hotel.

"Manie, can't it wait? Let me go! If it was _that_ important you would have said it already!"

"You're pregnant!"

- - -

**OMG!!! Now then, most of you are probably wondering how the heck he's pregnat, but that will all be explained in the next chapter so stay tuned!**


	9. Phase IX

**HI!!!! (looks around) Odd...Where have all of our favorite couple gone? I know Sonic's better because he **_**accidentally**_**(note: word enhanced) kicked a ball through my window. And Shadow yelled at me about an hour ago for stealing his coffee. So why aren't they here?**

**Sonic&Shadow: (jump out wearing party hats and holding balloons) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!**

**O.O (Speechless)**

**Sonic: Isn't this great? We organized an entire party tonight! Everyone's gonna be there! Even..(pauses to look around then whispers) TV's Adam West!**

**Um...How did you know it was my birthday? Were you spying on me!?**

**Sonic: I wasn't. Shadow on the other hand—**

**Shadow: (Shoots Sonic so he can't finish his sentence)**

**O MY GOWD!!!! YOU KILLED SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!!! I LOVE YOU SHADOW!!!!**

**Sonic: Doesn't anybody care about me!?!??!!??!!?**

**Come on Shadow, say the disclaimer and then we can go to that totally awesome party!!**

**Shadow: Tsukimomo doesn't own the slowly dieing Sonic, me or any other characters in the story. Except for that echidna and those chao in the other chapters. **

**Nicely said!**

Phase IX: Forgive And Forget

Pregnancy, to humans, may seem simple. The man and woman have sex, and most of the time, the woman becomes pregnant. But in the human race, only someone who was born female can become pregnant, not the man. A man can only become pregnant if he was once a woman in his life.

Despite the fact that only woman can become pregnant in the human race, if we look at the seahorses, the male carries around the offspring until they are born. In the anthropomorphic race, both male and female can become pregnant depending on what gender their partner is. If a male and female anthropomorphic were to have sex, then the female would most likely become pregnant. If two male anthropomorphics were to do the same, then the one on the receiving end, the uke in other terms, would be the one who would become pregnant. However, if two females were to do this as well, then it would not work, as semen is need for pregnancy to occur. So in other words, anthropomorphics are hermaphrodites. (Don't worry, that's all of the scientific nonsense in this chapter. Please note I am not responsible if your brain melted)

- - -

Small, bright diamonds now stood spread out across the night sky. All was quiet except for the sound of the ocean waves. In a small cave at the other end of the beach was Sonic, lying on the sandy floor with his head propped up against the wall. His gaze fixed on a small part in the cave where moonlight shone down from a small hole in the roof. His hand rested on his stomach, his fingers grazing over it slowly. After Manie had told him about being pregnant, he had ran off again, not wanted to stick around in the awkward situation. Although, he knew that he would have to face it sometime soon.

He had been running away a lot recently, and he wasn't happy with himself for it. It was just, when he was in an awkward situation he could think of no way to get out of it than run. He hated it. It made him seem cowardly. He hated being called a coward.

The azure hedgehog didn't bother moving when he heard footsteps inside of the cave, slowly coming towards him. A certain ebony hedgehog sat down next to him and sighed. Neither said a word. Neither wanted to say a word. Neither could think of what to say. So they sat there in silence, listening to the waves outside.

Shadow was the first one to break the silence. "Everyone's worried," he said, simply. Sonic just continued staring at that small spot where the moonlight shone. Shadow sighed and decided to try speaking again. "You've been gone just about all day. This isn't exactly an ideal vacation for them if their friend disappears. And Manie's worried too. After you ran off again she tried to look for you but returned to the campsite bawling her eyes out. Shouldn't you go back and let her know you're alright?"

"I guess I owe you an apology," Sonic said, not shifting his gaze. "I shouldn't jump to conclusions like that. I'm so stupid."

Shadow looked down at the other hedgehog. "You know, something in that sentence isn't true," he said.

Sonic frowned and look up at him, both meeting eye contact for the first time since Shadow had arrived. "I should jump to conclusions?"

"No."

"I'm smart?"

"No...I mean you can be a times! It's just that most of the time you can seem pretty...simple?"

"Some reassuring boyfriend you are," Sonic muttered, looking back at the patch on the sand again.

Wait! What Sonic just said, did that mean they were still together? Shadow blinked before placing at hand atop of Sonic's. "The part of your sentence that wasn't true was that part about the apology." Sonic looked up at Shadow. "You shouldn't have to apologize. I should. It was wrong of me to ignore how you felt and just go ahead with it. I should have asked you if you were okay with it or not. I'm...sorry."

"You mean that?"

"I do. And I'm sorry about all of the stuff I said to you when we were arguing. And what Manie said earlier on the beach. About even though we had been arguing, I still loved you. Well, it was true. I guess I let my anger get the best of me."

"You still love me?" Shadow nodded. Sonic placed his other hand on Shadow's to make a hand-sandwich. "Even though I said those awful things?" Again, Shadow nodded. Sonic took his hands away and wrapped his arms around Shadow's middle, burying his head in the hedgehog's chest.

Shadow frowned as he felt his fur become slightly damp. "Sonic? Are you crying again?"

Sonic looked up at him. "It's just...mood swings. Pregnant people get mood swings, y'know?"

"So is that your excuse for the other times you cried?" Sonic nodded. Shadow smiled lovingly and placed a hand on the azure's head. "That's another thing we'll have to sort out when we get back home. Baby stuff."

"I don't mind getting rid of it if it's too much!" Sonic said quickly, not wanting to keep the baby incase it was too much trouble, looking up at Shadow

"Sonic...do _you_ want to keep it?"

"Well, yes, but if you don't then—"

"Then he or she can stay."

Sonic sighed, closing his eyes. If he were to be honest, he never expected in his life that if he were in a relationship that he would be the child carrier. And because of that, he never really planned anything like learning how he should and should not handle a baby, how to feed it, or even a name. "My brain hurts," he said, drowsily.

Shadow chuckled. "We should head back to the hotel. After you ran off again the others packed up the camping stuff and took it back to the hotel."

"So they abandoned you?"

"No. They all decided to have hot chocolate and marshmallows and when the asked me if I wanted some I told them no and that I was going to search some more."

"But wouldn't that seem a bot suspicious? I mean, why, out of all people, would Shadow the Hedgehog be looking for me?" asked Sonic, leaning both his elbows on Shadow's stomach with his head in his hands.

"Rouge asked me that, trying to get me to slip about us. But I told them it was because Manie was upset. She ran up stairs and cried even more. The older rabbit had to go up and comfort her."

Sonic got off of Shadow and stood up, brushing the sand off him. "Then we should go back. I have to let Manie know I'm—" Sonic suddenly lost his balance and fell backwards, only to have Shadow catch him in his arms.

"Sonic! Are you okay?"

Said hedgehog rubbed his temple, frowning. "Yeah, I just...felt a bit dizzy. But I'm fine now. It was just a quick spell. Now come on! I need to go let Manie know that I'm okay!"

Shadow frowned as Sonic jumped up and began running off. He didn't seem fine just a few seconds ago. He shrugged and followed Sonic back to the hotel.

- - -

"Oh Sonic! You _promised_ that you wouldn't run off again! And what did you do after I told you about the baby? You ran off! It made me worry so muuuuuch!" Manie bawled, squeezing her brother tightly. She, Sonic and Shadow were all in Manie and Cream's room. Manie and Sonic were both sat on the bed while Shadow stood close by.

"Sorry, sis. It just gave me a little shock is all," Sonic replied, trying to comfort his sister.

Manie let go of her brother and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Just don't do it again, okay?" She turned to Shadow. "Where did you find him anyway?"

"He was in cave," said Shadow, his arms folded.

"Hey, I _am_ right here!" snapped Sonic.

"Sorry little bro," Manie apologized hugging her brother. "I couldn't help it. You know when you go with your parents to the doctors and it's your parents who are always talking about the child as if it weren't even there?"

"Not really."

Manie pouted, sticking her tongue out at her brother. Her face suddenly turned serious. "Have you two both made up or is the break up permanent?"

Shadow smirked. "Let me answer that question for you," he said before pouncing on Sonic and catching him in a deep kiss as Sonic began slamming his fist against the bed and giggling crazily.

"Awww. I'm glad. You two are so cute together! Especially you, little brother!"

"You should see him in the middle of s—"

"Quiet you!" Sonic interrupted, throwing a pillow in Shadow's face. The three of them talked and laughed and joked for about an hour. When they had finished, they were all out of breath and red in the face. The door suddenly opened to reveal a tired looking Cream.

"Sonic! You're back!" she cried. "Are you okay?"

"Don't you worry, kid. I'm fine. Is it your bedtime now?" The rabbit nodded. "Right then, we should go, Shadow." Shadow nodded and the two exited the room and headed up to their own. As soon as Shadow opened their door, Sonic rushed in a jumped on the bed. "Man! I'm _so_ exhausted!"

"Well you were running around all day," Shadow pointed out, switching on the light switch.

"I feel sweaty!" Sonic cried, punching and kicking the mattress. "Let's take a bath! Come on Shadow!"

Said hedgehog raised an eyebrow. "Since when were you so eager to get in water?"

"Well, this water is gonna have bubbles in it!"

"And how do you know that?"

Sonic dived into his drawer and pulled out several bubble bath bottles. "I got them from the gift shop!"

Shadow shook his head and took one of the bottles. "I'll start running it then," he said.

"And make sure to use all of it!"

"I will!"

Sonic smiled, putting the bottles back in his drawer. Things were back to how they were. He really did feel stupid for the way he had acted recently. And he had said the most terrible things to Shadow. Things that most people would never be able to forgive you for saying. But Shadow forgave him. He forgave him and loved him. Sonic's smile widened as he jumped on the bed. Things were perfect. He quickly got up as he heard Shadow calling him into the bathroom.

The two sat in the tub, Sonic resting the back of his head against Shadow's chest whilst staring up at the ceiling. Shadow currently running a soapy sponge up and down Sonic's arm, his chin placed atop of Sonic's head. "I can't see why you can't do it yourself," Shadow had said. And Sonic had replied:

"Who's the one pregnant here?"

All in all, everything was perfect.

- - -

Shadow was woken up by a knock on the door that next morning. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. He lay in bed, nuzzling his face in the back of Sonic's neck with his arms wrapped around the latter's middle. He closed his eyes, wanting to get more sleep when he heard knocking on the door again. Groaning, he stood up and headed over to the door. He frowned when he saw who it was that had woken him.

"Oh, good morning Shadow," a bubbly voice that belonged to none other than Amy Rose said. "Is Sonic here? I got so worried yesterday when no one could find him. I just want to check to see if he's alright."

"Sonic is fine, no please go away. We're trying to get some sleep!" Shadow snapped, rubbing his eyes. His frown deepened when he noticed that the annoying thing wasn't gone. "Well?"

"Oh, sorry! I just found it a little odd that you called him by his name when you usually call him faker."

Shadow mentally slapped himself. He needed to be a little more careful. "Look, I am very tired! I was awake just about all night! So can you please go away!"

"Well I'm not here to see _you_ I'm here to see Sonic!" Amy snapped, suddenly finding herself getting irritated by Shadow.

"Well he's fast asleep right now! So why don't you just piss off and leave us only you annoying bitch!" And with that, Shadow slammed the door in the girl's face, quickly locking before she tried to open.

"HOW DARE YOU! YOU GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW! DON'T MAKE ME USE FORCE!" she screamed, smacking her piko piko hammer against the door.

"What's with all that noise!" a drowsy and annoyed voice asked. Shadow looked over to the bed to see Sonic sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I'll give you one guess. Here are three clues: she's annoying, annoying, and oh yes, annoying!" Shadow replied, heading over to the bathroom.

"Amy," Sonic said under his breath. "She must have been worried about almost as much as Manie. I should talk to her." But as Sonic tried to get out off bed a sharp pain sliced through his stomach, causing to fall back and cry out in pain. Shadow reacted immediately, rushing over to the bed and holding Sonic in his arms.

"What is it? Are you hurt?" he asked. Sonic placed a hand over his stomach. Shadow saw this and instantly knew that that was the source of the pain. "Just try to stay calm and breathe slowly and deeply," he commanded.

After a couple of minutes of doing so, Sonic sighed and placed a hand over his eyes. "How many more of those am I gonna get?" he asked, sounding out of breath. Shadow looked down at the tired hero sympathetically. He shook his head and lay Sonic down on the bed gently before going back to the bathroom. By now the banging outside had stopped and all was quiet.

- - -

Later on, as Sonic was walking down to get himself some late breakfast, and by late I mean **1pm**, when something happened that could have meant the loss of some friendships.

"Sonic! Sonic!" the golden twin-tailed fox cried, running down the corridor with his tails spinning behind him.

"What's up, lil' bro?" Sonic asked casually.

Tails came to a halt in front of the azure hedgehog, trying to catch his breath. He looked up at Sonic with panic filled eyes. "Please don't be made at me! Please!" he cried.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down, kid. What happened?"

Tails gulped before replying, "Well, me Knuckles and Rouge were all sat in one of the rooms playing cards and something may have accidentally slipped." Tails' ears were pressed flat against his head as he finished his sentence.

Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'slipped'?"

"Well let's just say that they may either know or suspect something about you and Shadow."

"So let me get this straight. You, Knuckles and Rouge were playing cards and you accidentally tipped them off about me and Shadow." Tails nodded. "Well Rouge already knows so everything should be okay."

"What about Knuckles? If he doesn't know then he might go around telling everyone!"

"...Oh shit!"

- - -

**Le gasp! Then again, Knuckles is stupid so he may not realize it. But will he, or will he not? Find out in the next chapter! Yey!**

**Shadow: Where's Sonic?**

**He had to go to hospital. Why do you care?**

**Shadow: Uh...I...um...It's not what you think!**

**Sure it isn't. **

**Shadow: Why did he go there anyway?**

**Well you **_**did**_** shoot him earlier!**

**Shadow: Oh yeah.**

**But that's not why he went.**

**Shadow: No?**

**His brain melted at the beginning. He is sooooo stupid!**

**Shadow: He's not **_**that **_**stupid!**

**Why are you defending him?**

**Shadow: No reason!**

**(Shrugs) Oh well. Please review folks! If you do I'll save you some birthday cake!**

**Shadow: I hate cake.**

**You hate everything.**

**Shadow: Not true!**

**Oh yeah, you love Sonic, don't you?**

**Shadow: That's right—I mean no!**


	10. Phase X

**Sonic: Hello again everyone! I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!!! (Is slapped by author) OW!!! What was that for?**

**STOP CHANGING THE COLOR OF YOUR FUR!!! fIRST IT WAS DARK BLUE, THEN LIGHTER BLUE, AND NOW LIGHT BLUE!!! IT'S CONFUSABLE!!!**

**Sonic: I can do what I want with my fur!!**

**DIE!! (shoots Sonic) I don't own him so you can't sue me!!!!**

- - -

Phase X: Accept or Deny

"Sonic are Shadow are what!?" Knuckles screamed, only to be hit on the head by Rouge.

"Pipe down!" she ordered. "Are you trying to let everyone know about this!?"

"Wait. No one knows?" the red echidna asked, completely ignoring the fact that he wanted to hit Rouge back.

The snow white bat sighed, placing a hand on her hip. "Knuckles, if you were going out with another boy would you go around telling everyone?"

"Of course I would!"

"Really?"

"If I was actually going out with another boy but since I'm not then I can't. But seriously, Sonic and _Shadow_? Couldn't he have chosen someone else? I mean Shadow's not the type that shows his emotions. And he can be uptight, and miserable, and...and...emo!"

Knuckles sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. He had to admit that finding this bit of information was quite a shock to him. Sonic was his best friend, and it concerned him that Shadow was his mate. Sure the ebony hedgehog could be cool at times, even though he would never actually admit that to Shadow, but he could also be cold and harsh. Sonic and Shadow were just too different. Where one would be silly and laughing until he cried, the other would just be sat frowning with his arms folded.

"Earth to Knuckles!"

Said echidna snapped out of his thoughts and looked in front of him to see Rouge and Sonic both staring at him. "Er...did you say something?" he asked, feeling stupid.

Sonic sighed, smacking his forehead. "Yes. Five times," he replied.

Knuckles blushed slightly, suddenly feeling more stupid as he made a small 'oh'. "Wait a minute! You and Shadow—"

Rouge smacked him over the head before he could say any more. "How many times do I have to tell you to _be quiet_!" she hissed. "Show some respect! Sonic here has been trying his best to hide the fact that he and Shadow are deeply in love a secret so that he can still remain friends with all of us!" She placed a hand on her cheek, a distant look in her eyes. "It's just like a cute, romantic love story."

Knuckles looked over at Sonic whilst rubbing his sore head. "You kept it a secret so that you would still have friends?" he asked.

Sonic nodded, looking ashamed. "You know that there are people out there who are strongly against boys dating other boys. And if any of you were like that, and I turned up one day saying that Shadow and me are dating, then you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore."

Knuckles looked at the hedgehog sympathetically. Most people would see heroes as people who can't be hurt anything in any shape or form. But as Knuckles could know see, heroes are nothing without their friends to support them. If they lost all of their friends, then they may lose the will to help everyone.

"So are you and Shadow serious about this relationship? I mean, you're both too different."

A smile tugged on Sonic's face. "That's why we're a perfect match. Where one is lacking something the other makes up for it. But you've gotta promise not to tell anyone, okay?"

"Tell anyone what?" a sinister voice suddenly asked, causing the animals' fur to stick on end as the sound reached their ears.

- - -

"The nerve of that guy! Who does he think he is?"

"Amy, calm down! I may not know Shadow as well as you, but what I do know is this: he's a selfish, arrogant jerk!" Wave said, as she filed her nails. She had originally been in their room reading a mechanics magazine when Amy burst through the door and began complaining about Shadow.

"I mean, why does Shadow care whether or not I see Sonic? All I wanted to do was see if he was okay. He _did_ disappear for the entire day! I was worried sick! So sick that when we came back to this place I didn't eat anything and went straight to bed!"

"If your boyfriend disappeared then wouldn't you be overprotected when he came back?" The swallow quickly smacked her head against the table. _'Stupid! Stupid!'_

"Well what did you think...I was...doing...What did you just say?"

"I said nothing! It was just a bunch of gibberish! You know when you say something that completely has no meaning whatsoever? That. Like the word 'shnibble'. That has no meaning!" Wave said, quickly.

Amy frowned at her. "No, you said something that had a meaning. You said that if your boyfriend disappeared then you'd be overprotective when he comes back. You said that, didn't you?"

Wave nodded her head, knowing instantly that she was in a whole of trouble.

"But you weren't talking about me?"

This time, the swallow shook her head.

"Then just who were you talking about?"

- - -

"Shadow?"

Said hedgehog stood in the doorway staring at the three animals and he was not looking like he was in a good mood. Despite the trio's usually loudness and confidence, when it came to Shadow being in a bad mood, all of them tried to avoid him as much as possible. But in this situation, someone _had_ to speak. And unlucky for Knuckles, it was him.

"Uh, hi Shadow. Congrats about you and Sonic," he said. Shadow frowned and slowly began walking towards the echidna, causing Knuckles to back away until he hit the wall. The ebony hedgehog grabbed him by a tuff of fur and pinned him against the wall.

"You know?" he snapped, sounding far beyond furious. Poor Knuckles was pinned against the wall trying to figure out what to say without angering the hedgehog further. "Well? Do you!?"

"Yes!" Knuckles cried and quickly said, "But I'll promise to keep it a secret! If I don't then feel free to harm me!"

"Harm you? I'll do more than that if you go around telling everyone something we've worked hard to keep secret from people like you!" Shadow spat, shaking the echidna violently. "I'll just have you know that I've barely been getting any sleep lately, and do you know what that does to me? I get cranky!"

"Well maybe if you didn't wake yourself up with your snores every night then you'd get more sleep!" Sonic said, a cocky smile and his face.

Shadow dropped Knuckles. "Don't you even think about trying to humor me again!" he said, causing chills to run down Sonic's spine. Shadow looked back at Knuckles, who was being nursed by Rouge, before walking out of the door. As soon as he did, Sonic sighed.

"God, I hate this day."

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Knuckles asked, seeming to have recovered from the threat.

"Don't be mad at him! It's just that it's that time of year again." Knuckles and Rouge both looked at Sonic, looking confused. "On this very day...all those years ago...was when the ARK was invaded. And Maria..."

Rouge sighed brushed some invisible dirt off of her shoulder. "He really should learn to stop living in the past," she said. "What happened happened. There's nothing he can do now. And he has you now anyway. So why the heck does he insist on not letting go of that girl?"

Silence found its way into the room. None of them spoke. It was when a scream was heard that they all spoke.

"AMY!"

- - -

A short while before the scream was heard, Amy Rose was rushing down each of the corridors, searching for a certain hedgehog. There was something she had to ask him. If she couldn't get the answer to her question soon then she wouldn't know what she would do.

As she took another turn, she spotted Shadow about to go into his room. Well it wasn't the one she sought, but he would do. "Shadow!" she called out. Shadow frowned once he saw her. "There's something that I need to know about Sonic!"

"Then go ask him!" Shadow spat back. He was in no mood to have to deal with her.

"But it involves you!" the pink hedgehog quickly said as Shadow was about to walk into his room again.

Shadow turned to the girl and frowned. "Well?"

Amy breathed deeply before asking, "Is there anything between you and Sonic?" Amy watched as Shadow simply stared at her. "Please, I need to know!" She was on the verge of tears.

As harsh and cruel as Shadow could be, the next thing Shadow did was far the worst. "The answer is yes. Don't bother crying about it since you _never_ had a chance with Sonic in the first place. I mean, who would want a girlfriend like you?"

That was all that Amy could take. She tried to lash out at the male hedgehog but he pushed her back against the wall easily, causing a scream to escape her lungs. Almost instantly, a blue hedgehog appeared on the scene. He took one look at Amy, who was now sat against the wall with tears running down her face, before rushing to her side. "Amy, Are you alright?" he cried.

"Tell him to stop it, Sonic," she sobbed. "Tell Shadow to stop making up cruel stories about you and him being together."

It was then that it dawned on him that Shadow must have told her about the not-so-secret secret. He shook his head sadly and said, "I can't."

"Why? Tell him! Tell _me_ that it isn't true! Please! Don't you love me Sonic?"

"I _do_ love you, Amy. But not in the way you love me."

Amy suddenly stood and ran off. The two hedgehogs watched as she did so. "Who knew you could be so harsh," Shadow mused after Amy had disappeared from view.

"Shut it, you! Just because you can't learn to get over something that happened years ago, doesn't mean that you have to take it out on everyone else!" Sonic took one last look at Shadow before running off shouting 'AMY!'. Shadow leant against the doorframe and sighed. He knew in his heart that Sonic was right. He _should_ learn to get over the incident at the ARK. But every time he tried, he couldn't bring himself to do so.

- - -

Amy finally stopped running. She was outside. She sat down on a brick wall that was close by. A tear fell down her face. She had finally realized that Sonic, the love of her life, didn't love her back. And what made it worse was that it was a guy, and not just any guy. It was Shadow. What did he have the she didn't?

The young girl was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice someone sit down next to her until he spoke. "There you are."

Amy didn't need to look to see who it was. "Stay away from me," she said, clenching her fists.

"And just how are you going to make me?" Sonic asked, smirking. "You couldn't hurt me if your life depended on it."

"I _so_ could!"

"Prove it!"

Amy sighed and relaxed a little. "I can't," she replied, quietly. "I love you too much."

"Amy," Sonic said, softly. "You need to understand that I _do_ love you. But as a sister. If anything were to happen to you then I wouldn't know how to live with myself."

"Is that all I'm worth? Why did you choose him over me?"

"If I were to be honest, I don't know. It just sort of happened."

Amy sighed. "Well if you're in love with Shadow and not me, then I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it. You love him, and there's nothing I can do to change it. Like they always say, there's plenty more fish in the sea." (My grandma said that to me)

"Are you sure you're okay with it? You're not going to do anything rash are you?"

"Sonic, you've known me for a long time. Have I ever done anything rash? On second thoughts, don't answer that question." They both laughed a little. "So how long have you been together?"

The blue hedgehog looked up at the cloudy sky. "About two months."

"And you're both serious, aren't you?"

"Hopefully, yes. We had a little fight yesterday but we sorted things out. It's because of that little argument that I ran off."

"And who else knows?"

"Well I think Manie was the first to figure it out. She walked in on us while we were in bed together."

"I bet that was embarrassing."

"Yeah, it was. I'm not sure who found out next but Rouge was the next mention it to us. Then after that, Tails. Just recently Knuckles, and you."

"I think Wave might know. Rouge talks to her a lot."

"And you're positive that you're okay with it?"

"I'm fine. You really don't have to worry about me."

Sonic smiled at her. "You know, I'm actually glad that you found out. Because now that I know you're okay with it I feel like I can tell the others. Thanks."

Amy smiled back. "No problem. And if anyone doesn't accept you then they'll have to answer to me! Just because our relationship isn't as strong as yours and Shadow's, then that doesn't mean that I'll love you any less!"

"You don't have to do that. I don't really want my friends pounded to a pulp."

"Sorry."

- - -

Later on that day, Sonic had asked everyone who came on vacation with them to meet him in the games room. Of course he made sure that no one else would go in by putting a fake note outside saying that they were doing something with all of the furniture.

"You're all probably wondering why I asked you all to come here," Sonic began, standing in front of everyone. "Well, the reason is because there is something that I want all of you to know. Some of you may already know about this but I'd feel a lot better telling it to everyone at the same time. I don't really want to drag this out much longer so I'll come straight to the point. Shadow and I are dating."

There were a couple of gasps from the others before they started mumbling stuff to each other. Had they accepted it or not? "Well I say congratulations," Tails said, standing up. Sonic smiled. H could always count on his little buddy.

"Same here," Knuckles said, also standing. "Sonic, I don't care if you're gay, straight, or a bit of both. You're still my pal."

"Hey, that's what I said to him!"

"That's my baby brother!" cried Manie, running over to her younger brother and hugging him.

"I worship you!" Vector cried suddenly. "If I was in your position, then I'd never have the guts to say it aloud in front of everyone. It's like Knuckles said, we don't care. Ain't that right, guys?" Vector turned to the others who nodded.

Rouge gave Shadow a little shove. "Go on. We wanna see the two of you together," she said. A ghost of a smile appeared on Shadow's face before he walked up to Sonic and kissed him smack on the lips.

"Eww, gross!" Charmy joked, covering his eyes.

"We should have a little celebration for the two of you," Lady Vanilla suggested, clapping her hands together.

"That's a grate idea!" replied Amy

"For all those who are of age, the drinks are on me!" Vector said.

Sonic couldn't be happier, everyone accepted Shadow and him.

- - -

Later that night, after a great party, Sonic sat on the bed in his room looking through some photos he had taken on his digital camera. The first few were from the party; pictures of everyone laughing and having a good time. He couldn't help but smile when he came across one of Tails and Cream dancing together, and the fox was blushing big time! After the photos from the party, he came across one he had taken about two months ago. It was one he had taken right after he and Shadow had fallen in love. Shadow had his arms wrapped around Sonic's middle and leaning his head against Sonic's. Sonic had both arms outstretched from where he held the camera. Both were smiling.

A pair of gentle hands touched Sonic's shoulders and began to massage them. "Mmm...That feels nice," the azure hedgehog said just above a whisper.

"I remember that day," Shadow's soothing voice reached the other's ears. "How could I forget such a wonderful day?" He kissed Sonic gently on the cheek.

"You're being affectionate all of a sudden."

Shadow continued to massage his lover's shoulders. "I'm proud of you. Up until today you were afraid of everyone knowing about us. You did anything you could to keep it a secret. But today...Today you faced your fears and became triumphant."

"Thank you, Shadow. That means a lot to me." Sonic yawned and rested his back against Shadow. "I love you Shadow. You'll always know that, won't you?"

"Of course I will. And about what you said earlier today about not getting over what happened at the ARK. I'm going to try my best to put it behind me and concentrate on one thing."

"What's that?"

"My love for you."

- - -

**(Bawls like a baby) That was so cute!!!!! And if it wasn't as good as the others then don't complain, I WAS LAZY!!!!**

**Sonic: Well, everyone accepted it. Is that the end?**

**Nope! You're still on vacation. **

**Shadow:...(whimpering) Maria...**

**If only he could try to get over it here.**

**Sonic: Hey, I've got a tip for ya. **

**Oh yeah? What?**

**Sonic: Never piss Shadow of when he's like this.**

**Why?**

**Sonic: I'll show you! (Smacks Shadow's ass)**

**Shadow: **_**WHO DID THAT!?!!?!?!?!?!? **_**(His entire body is surrounded by flames)**

**Wow! What a display! **

**Sonic: Yeah! And you know what you shouldn't do when he's like **_**this**_**?**

**What?**

**Sonic: MOVE!!!! (Is hit so hard that he lands in Africa) Cool! A giraffe!**

**GYAAAH! Calm down Shadow! Holy shit I'm getting out of here! Please remember to review!**


	11. Phase XI

**Hello everyone! Well, this is the final phase of Sakura Bloom :(**

**Audience: WHAAAAT!?!?!?!?!**

**Yeah. I'm so sorry it's such short notice. I'm gonna miss this fanfic. T.T**

**Dislcaimer: For the last time in Sakura Bloom, I do not own these guys and girls. Despite the fact that I hate saying this I'm gonna miss it. SIGH.**

- - -

Phase XI: The Final Phase

Shadow sat at the dining table. There was an empty plate in front of him that still smelled of the eggs he had just eaten. He glanced up at the clock on the wall to see that it was just gone **10am**. When he had left his bedroom, Sonic was still in bed sleeping peacefully. Today was the day that everybody would leave the resort and go home. This meant that he needed to start packing.

The ebony hedgehog sighed and began heading back to his room. As he did, he was nearly knocked off his feet when two people rushed by him on extreme gear. These two were Sonic the Hedgehog and Jet the Hawk. Neither was in the lead, even as they turned corners, the one was right beside the other. It looked as though it was going to be a draw until...

"SONIC!"

Said hedgehog jumped when his name was called and ended up losing balance. Jet only laughed and continued to go on to the goal which was on the ground floor. Sonic rubbed his head, as he handed landed head first on the ground. He then began looking around; searching for the one who had distracted him and had probably caused him to lose the race. He frowned when his gaze landed on an ebony hedgehog whose arms were folded across his chest. "Shadow! What was that for? Now I've lost the race!"

"Well you shouldn't have been racing around like that! It's too dangerous!" Shadow said, his voice raised.

"Dangerous? I've raced him dozens of times! If it were really that dangerous then I wouldn't have been racing him!"

"What's with all the racket!"

The two hedgehogs looked to see Knuckles stood in the doorway, and he didn't look happy. Tails could be seen rushing about behind him. "Oh hi there, Knux! Sorry to disturb you. Shadow's just being whiny is all," Sonic laughed.

"How am I being whiny?" Shadow asked, sounding annoyed.

"Because you keep going on about how dangerous racing Jet was. It's not dangerous at all, tell him Knux!"

Knuckles folded his arms. "As stupid as he is, I have to agree with Sonic on that one. He and Jet are always racing and not once has he had any severe injury."

Sonic smirked and finally stood up, brushing invisible dust off of himself. "See, no harm at all."

Shadow frowned. "I wasn't talking about you." Now it was Sonic's turn to frown. Why was Shadow so worried if he wasn't even talking about him? His eyes widened in realization. "Now do you know why it's dangerous?"

"So are you saying I can't race him in case I damage the baby?"

"Baby!?" Knuckles and Tails both cried.

"Yes," replied Shadow, ignoring the other two. "_And_ you're supposed to be packing. Now move!" Sonic frowned at his counterpart before heading upstairs. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Shadow nodded towards the extreme gear.

"Oh, that's Jet's. He'll find it eventually," Sonic said before disappearing from view. Shadow sighed before also going up to his room, leaving a confused Knuckles and Tails.

"Well you can tell who's in charge of that relationship," Knuckles snickered.

"But what Sonic said about damaging a baby is concerning me. Do you think that it could be possible that he's pregnant?" Tails asked Knuckles who only shrugged.

"If he's pregnant then good for him."

"But just say he is, what if Eggman were to show up and try to take over the world again? Sonic would be in no shape to try and stop him."

"Oh man, I never thought about that."

- - -

"Our boat will be here at about **2pm**. So that should give us enough time to pack and make sure that everything's there," Shadow explained, folding up a towel and placing it in his suitcase.

"Do you think I'll get fat?" asked Sonic, completely ignoring what Shadow had just said.

"If you keep eating the way you do then yes, you will."

Sonic frowned, placing all of his bubble bath bottles in his suitcase. "You know what I mean. OW!" A shampoo bottle hit his head. "What the heck was that for?"

"To help give you a headache so you can stop thinking about the baby."

"I'm just curious, Shadow. I bet you'd be too if you were the one pregnant."

"It's a good thing I never let you on top then." Sonic stopped his packing and laid down on the bed, placing his face to the pillow. "You okay?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, just tired," came a muffled reply. "And I need to think."

Shadow also stopped packing and moved over to the bed, sitting down next to Sonic. "Anything in particular?"

"No...Just thinking...And my head hurts thanks to someone throwing a shampoo bottle at it."

"Well be careful not to hurt yourself thinking. I'll finish packing for you."

- - -

It was now noon. Everyone was downstairs eating lunch together for the last time during this vacation. Everyone except for Sonic. He still lay on the bed, except now he was on his side and held his cellphone in front of him. He had been in that position for some time now. There was something he needed to do; something he had to do. He took a deep breath before pressing a key on his phone. He placed it to his ear as he waited for the person he called to pick up.

- - -

Shadow walked casually up to the bedroom. He hadn't seen Sonic at lunch, and this concerned him as he knew Sonic loved food and would hardly ever skip a meal. As he walked into the bedroom, he saw Sonic closing his suitcase. He turned to Shadow and smiled cheerfully. "Hi Shadie!"

"You're in a good mood all of a sudden. And I thought I packed everything for you," Shadow said, closing the door and walking over to the bed, sitting down.

"You forgot one little thing. I think we're gonna need more soon, though since there's only a little left. How much of that stuff do you use, anyway?"

"Well I need to ensure that you won't feel much pain. I mean, would you rather use the lube and let everything go smoothly, or would you rather have it so that you bleed inside and not be able to sit down for weeks?"

"I'd go with option A."

"So there you go then."

Sonic sat down next to Shadow, leaning on his shoulder as his partner placed an arm around him. "It's a shame we have to go, though. I'm really gonna miss this place."

"At least at home we won't get by everyone. Like that annoying girl."

"You mean Amy?"

Shadow nodded. "After she ran off, what did she say to you when you found her?"

"You know you shouldn't be so hard on her. She seems okay now but I'm not too sure. She was saying that if I don't love her like the way she loves me, then she'd just have to learn to live with it."

"When I came in here you seemed happy. Did something happen?"

"Yeah, I called my mother and told her that I had a boyfriend. She sounded really happy and said that she'd really like to meet you."

"Really? Well we'll just have to make an appointment to see her then." Sonic laughed, wrapping his arms around Shadow. "You know, we've been at this resort for a long time and I never found out its name."

"You never? Wanna know?"

"You know?"

Sonic smiled. "Yep, it's called: Sakura Bloom."

Shadow wrapped his other arm around Sonic's waist. "Sakura...Bloom...That's quite ironic, don't you think? On that day, there were cherry blossoms just about everywhere."

"Well we were at the park."

"True...So true..."

- - -

Sonic stood by the entrance door, his suitcase by his side. Shadow had said that he needed to do something and told him to wait by the entrance. He was suddenly pounced on, nearly making him fall over. He looked at the source who was currently hugging him tightly. "Amy?"

Said girl pulled away and smiled. "Just because you have a boyfriend then that doesn't mean I can't still hug you right?" Sonic sweat-dropped. "Oh, are you leaving soon?"

"Yeah, the boat is supposed to arrive soon. I just hope Shadow hurries up or else we'll miss it."

"But aren't you going to say goodbye to everyone?"

"It would take too much time finding them all. Could you thank Lady Vanilla for me? It was really nice of her to let us come on this vacation. And tell Manie I said goodbye too."

"Of course. I'll go tell them now. Bye-bye." Amy turned around and ran off somewhere in the resort. She smiled to herself. Even if she couldn't be Sonic's girlfriend, she could still hang around with him when they both had any free time.

Sonic sighed, leaning is back against the wall. Where was Shadow? If he was going to be any longer then they would miss their boat. Not that Sonic really wanted to go on a boat, but he had to get home somehow.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," a calm and cool voice said. Sonic looked up at the owner.

"What took you so long, Shadow?"

"There was something I needed to ask someone. But enough about that. Our boat should be arriving anytime now."

The two hedgehogs picked up their suitcases and for the first time, joined hands in public before walking over to the peer. Neither of them minded if any of the people on vacation saw them. Their friends accepted them, Sonic's brother and mother accepted them. They had nothing to fear.

- - -

Several months had passed since the trip to the resort. The hedgehogs hadn't had much contact with the others since they left. They had other things that needed to be dealt with. For instance, they were thinking of moving into a bigger house as their current one was beginning to seem a bit too small.

The sky was painted the deepest of the dark blues with patches covered by clouds that were illuminated by the light of the silver moon. It was too early in the morning for most to be awake. Only nocturnal animals roamed the land at this hour.

Some light from the moon shone down into the room of two certain hedgehogs'. One of which was awake. Shadow lay in bed next to his partner. He had woken up not too long ago, but couldn't find himself getting back to sleep. His head lay close to the other's stomach, gently stroking it with his fingertips. His fingers came to a stop as they touched a recent scar. He sighed lightly as he began tracing the scar with his fingers.

He would have done this for longer if a small noise hadn't come from nearby. Shadow turned his head and locked at the clock by the bed. He took his hand away from Sonic and silently slipped out of bed, making his way over to a cot. He reached inside and pulled out a small bundle of blankets. He chuckled when he remembered Sonic saying that the small creature inside of the blankets needed to stay warm.

Shadow made his way into the kitchen and grabbed a baby bottle that sat next to the sink. He put it under his arm as he pulled back some of the blankets until he saw the face of a baby midnight blue hedgehog with pale red streaks on its quills. Its left eye was a gorgeous emerald while the right was a dazzling ruby. It then smiled cutely upon recognizing the face if its father.

Shadow fed the baby the milk that was in the bottle until it fell asleep again. He couldn't help but smile at the baby hedgehog sleeping peacefully in his arms. He slowly made his way back to the bedroom, placing the baby down in the cot, before lying back down in the bed.

"I thought it was suddenly colder in here," the azure hedgehog next to him said, cuddling up to Shadow. "Where'd you go anyway?"

Shadow looked at Sonic, noticing how exhausted he looked. "Sora was hungry again. He kind of reminds me of you."

Sonic pouted. "Well he's stubborn just like you."

Shadow couldn't help but laugh. Just over a week ago, Sonic was rushed into hospital to have a C-section. Not too long later, Sonic sat in a hospital bed, giving his and Shadow's baby boy his first feed whilst trying to decide on a name. In the end they both agreed on Sora. Shadow had noticed that his partner had been wiped out since the C-section, but the doctors informed him that it was natural for him to be like that since males weren't really supposed to hold children.

"Do you think that he'll be able to run fast like us?" Sonic asked, closing his eyes.

"Who knows? We may just have to teach him. I'll just feed you sugar before you tutor him and he'll be running fast in no time."

"But for now we just have to concentrate on raising him to be good. And remember Shadow, you can't swear in front of him."

"Don't worry, I know."

"AND you have to get rid of the gun."

"I did. I threw the one in the closet away along with the others."

"But you didn't get rid of the one _under_ the closet."

"Alright I'll get rid of it in the morning. Just go to sleep."

"'Night Shadow. Love you."

"I love you too." Shadow proved that by kissing him gently on the lips before he too closed his eyes.

- - -

**YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I've finally finished a fanfiction that had more that six chapters!!!!!**

**Sonic: Holy crap she's gonna explode!!!**

**No I'm not, silly. At least now I can take a nice long rest. You and Shadow wanna come get a beer with me?**

**Shadow: You two are both too young to drink. And besides, what about that promise you made back in the other chapter.**

**Oh yeah! I nearly forgot about that. In one of my other chapters I promised that I'd give a preview of my next fanfiction. I've actually been working on it a bit during my spare spare time. So I'll give you guys a prologue and if you're interested then keep a look out for it. **

**Sonic: What's it called?**

**Shadow: Probably another dumb name.**

**It's not dumb! I've called it: 'A Reflection Or More'. How awesome is that?**

**Shadow: Not really.**

**Sonic: (holding Sora) It's so bad that you made Sora cry.**

**Sora: WHAAAAAAA (Translation: My Mummy's an idiot!)**

**Sonic: (Cuddling the baby) There, there. It's okay.**

**Shadow: Why the heck do you still have that thing?**

**Sonic: GASP!!! This our child, Shadow! **_**OUR**_** child! You can't talk about him like that!**

**Before this gets out of hand why don't I just show you guys the prologue to my new fanfiction.**

- - -

**A Reflection Or More:**

**Prologue**

_It was so cold..._

_It had all happened so fast, he didn't have any time at all to react. Whoever it was, they had a great advantage since they had used the element of surprise. And now...now he lay here cold, batter and broken. He must have taken quite a few blows to the chest since whenever he breathed in; he could here a wheezing sound from where his lungs were trying to take in as much air as they possibly could. _

_His eyes seemed to be bleeding; as he remembered seeing red before he was forced to close them, hoping that it would help to take some of the pain away. If he couldn't see the state his body was in, then it wouldn't hurt as much, right? _

_He cringed slightly as a sharp pain shot up his back. This person seemed to have ripped out some of his quills, as he remembered seeing them discarded on the floor. It would probably take a while before they would grow back. But until then, he wouldn't be able to bear looking into the mirror at what remained on his back. _

_The ice-cold rain didn't help ease the pain. In fact, they made it worse. Although, a large amount of his body had turned numb by now. He wasn't even sure if he was still lying on the ground since his entire side had turned numb. The only thing he had to back up on was the fact that his arm that was sprawled on the ground still had feeling. If he couldn't feel the ground, then that probably would mean that his arm had also turned numb, or he was being taken somewhere. _

_It was quite funny when he thought about it. Just about all his life, he had saved humans from their world being taken over or destroyed. And what did he get in return? This. Complete pain and torture. Was that all what humans knew how to create? It's usually their fault that someone wants to take over their world in the first place._

_Some of the rain suddenly seemed to back off, as if something was trying to stop it from soaking him much longer. It could have just been the concussion, but he could have sworn that someone was near him. He couldn't help but let out a small whimper at the thought of being tortured yet again. He suddenly couldn't feel the ground on his arm. Instead, it was something soft and gentle touching him. There seemed to be a sudden gust of wind before he found himself slipping into unconsciousness._

_- - -_

**Well, that's the prologue. If it interests you then remember to keep a look out. I'm going to take a break from submitting stuff for while. Now who wants to get a beer?**

**Sonic: I want a beer!**

**Shadow: Didn't I tell you idiots that you're too young. If you go in a bar and ask for a beer they'll kick you out.**

**Sonic: Good point.**

**That's why you go in the bar, asked for three drinks, get the drinks and the come out and give it to us.**

**Sonic: Even better point.**

**Shadow: And just what makes you think that I'm willing to do that?**

**Oh, I know how. (Grabs Sora from Sonic) This is your baby as well as Sonic's and now that I have it if you don't do what I want then the baby will suffer.**

**Shadow: I hate babies; it's not going to work.**

**But if anything was to happen to this baby and you could have been able to prevent it, then you'll probably be killed by Sonic.**

**Shadow: As if.**

**Sonic: (Pulling a flamethrower out of nowhere) I WANT MY BABY!!!!!!!!!!**

**HOLY SHIT!!! (hands Sora to Shadow) Shadow has it!**

**Shadow: What the? Sonic stay the f##k away from me with that flamethrower! Here! Have your baby back! (Throws the baby to Sonic)**

**Sonic: My baby! (catches Sora and cuddles him while making strange goo-type noises)**

**I think having a baby has made him insane.**

**Shadow: Agreed. **

**Now then Shadow, how about getting us those drinks?**

**Shadow: (groans)**


End file.
